Numerical Analysis of Stem Wave Control Effect of a Curved Slit Caisson Breakwater

Abstract

Curved slit caisson has been the preferred structural type of breakwater in South Korea, and effective control of stem waves is a crucial design factor significantly affecting the performance of a curved slit caisson breakwater. Most of the past studies on stem waves heavily relied on wave drivers like the cubic Schrödinger Eq. due to the intrinsic difficulties in analyzing stem waves. However, considering the perturbation method evoked in the derivation of cubic Schrödinger Eq., the wave driver mentioned above could give erroneous results in the rough sea due to the higher-order waves that appeared in the wave field by resonance wave-wave interaction. In this rationale, in this study, the numerical simulation was implemented to verify the stem wave control effect of curved slit caisson using the ihFoam, toolbox having its roots on OpenFoam. It was shown that curved slit caisson breakwater effectively alleviates the scope and height of stem waves.