Hydroelastic investigation on a pile breakwater integrated with a flexible tail for long-wave attenuation

Abstract

A novel concept of wave attenuator is proposed for the defense of long waves, through integrating a flexible tail to the lee-side surface of a pile breakwater. The flexible tail works as a floating blanket made up of hinged blocks, whose scale and stiffness can be easily adjusted. A two-phase-flow numerical model is established based on the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code OpenFOAM to investigate its wave attenuation performance. Incompressible Navier—Stokes equations are solved in the fluid domain, where an additional computational solid mechanics (CSM) solver is embedded to describe the elastic deformation of the floating tail. The coupling of fluid dynamics and structural mechanics is solved in a full manner to allow assess of wave variation along the deforming body. The accuracy of the numerical model is validated through comparison with experimental data. Effects of the flexible tail on performance of the pile breakwater are investigated systematically. Dynamic behaviours of the tail are examined, and characteristics of its natural frequency are identified. For safety reasons, the wave loads impacting on the main body of the pile breakwater and the stress distribution over the tail are specially examined. It is found that both the length and stiffness of the tail can affect the wave-attenuation performance of the breakwater. A proper choice of the length and stiffness of the tail can greatly improve the long-wave defending capability of the pile breakwater. The maximum stress over the flexible tail can be restrained through optimising the deformation and stiffness of the tail.