Numerical investigations of wave overtopping at coastal structures

Under the numerical modelling work package of the EU funded CLASH project, the time accurate, free surface capturing, incompressible Navier–Stokes solver AMAZON-SC has been applied to study impulsive wave overtopping at Samphire Hoe, near Dover in the United Kingdom. The simulations show that the overtopping process on this vertical, sheet pile, seawall is dominated by impulsive, aerated, near vertical overtopping jets. In order to perform the simulations AMAZON-SC has been extended to incorporate an isotropic porosity model and for validation purposes the solver has been applied to study overtopping of a low crested sea dike and a 10:1 battered wall. The results obtained for the battered wall and Samphire Hoe tests are in good agreement both with predicted overtopping discharges calculated using the UK overtopping manual and with available experimental results.