Weakly-compressible SPH and Experimental modeling of periodic wave breaking on a plane slope

Abstract

Breaking waves have ability to transport large quantities of sediment and significant impact on coastal structures morphology. Hence, modeling of wave breaking is an important subject in coastal and marine engineering. In this research, the periodic wave breaking process on a plane slope is studied experimentally and numerically. Laboratory experiments were conducted to record water surface elevation and the wave breaking process. For the current study, a space-averaged Navier–Stokes approach together with laboratory experiments has been deployed to investigate time-dependent wave breaking processes. The developed model is based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) method; a pure Lagrangian approach; capable of handling large deformations at free surface with high accuracy. So, a Weakly Compressible version of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH) method together with a large eddy simulation (LES) approach was used to simulate the wave breaking on a plane slope. The results of numerical simulations were compared both qualitative and quantitative with those of laboratory experiments. Overall, good agreement was found between them. Finally, it is shown that the WCSPH method provides a useful tool to investigate surf zone dynamics.