Numerical Simulation on Oscillation-Sliding-Uplift Rock Coupled Motion of Caisson Breakwater Under Wave Excitation

Corresponding to the sliding and the overturning failure,the elementary motion modes of caisson breakwater include the horizontal-rotational oscillation coupled motion,the horizontal sliding-rotational oscillation coupled motion,the horizontal vibrating-uplift rocking coupled motion,and the horizontal sliding-uplift rocking coupled motion.The motion mode of a caisson will transform from one to another depending on the wave forces and the motion behaviors of the caisson.The numerical models of four motion modes of caisson are developed,and the numerical simulation procedure for joint motion process of various modes of caisson breakwater under wave excitation is presented and tested by a physical model experiment.It is concluded that the simulation procedure is reliable and can be applied to the dynamic stability analysis of caisson breakwaters.

Reliability Index of Caisson Breakwaters for Load Variables Correlated

In order to suit the condition that the wave uplift is correlated with the horizontal wave load acting on a vertical breakwater, a generally used method for determining the reliability index β of the breakwater, i.e. the Hasofer-Lind method, is extended in a generalized stochastic space for correlative variables. The computational results for a caisson breakwater indicate that the value of β for the case of correlated variables is obviously smaller than that for the case of independent variables.

A Probabilistic Method for Motion Analysis of Caisson Breakwaters

It is assumed that, during the design period, the waves acting on breakwaters are divided into three types： standing wave, broken wave and breaking wave,and the wave heights fit the Rayleigh distribution while the water depths, wave periods and duration of breaking wave impact force fit normal distribution. Based on the random samples of water depths, wave heights, wave periods and duration of breaking wave impact force, the types of waves acting on breakwaters are distinguished and the time-history model of the wave force is determined. The motions of caisson breakwaters under the wave force are simulated by a dynamic numerical model and the statistic characteristics of the dynamic responses are analyzed with the Monte Carlo method. A probabilistic procedure to analyze the motion of the breakwater is developed therein. The procedure is illustrated by an example.

Vibrating-Rocking Motion of Caisson Breakwater Under Breaking Wave Impact

The possible motions of a caisson breakwater under dynamic load excitation include vibrating, vibrating-sliding and vibrating- rocking motions. The models of vibrating motion and vibrating-sliding motion have been proposed in an early paper. In this paper, a model of vibrating- rocking motion of caisson breakwaters under breaking wave impact is presented, which can be used to simulate the histories of vibrating-rocking motion of caisson breakwaters. The effect of rocking motion on the displacement, rotation, sliding force and overturning moment of breakwaters is investigated, In case the overturning moment exceeds the stability moment of a caisson, the caisson may only rock. The caisson overturns only in case the rocking angle exceeds the critical angle, It is shown that the sliding force and overturning moment of breakwaters can be reduced effectively due to the rocking motion, It is proposed that some rocking motion should be allowed in breakwater design.

Application of Importance Sampling Method in Sliding Failure Simulation of Caisson Breakwaters

It is assumed that the storm wave takes place once a year during the design period, and Nhistories of storm waves are generated on the basis of wave spectrum corresponding to the N-year design period. The responses of the breakwater to the N histories of storm waves in the N-year design period are calculated by mass-spring-dashpot mode and taken as a set of samples. The failure probability of caisson breakwaters during the design period of N years is obtained by the statistical analysis of many sets of samples. It is the key issue to improve the efficiency of the common Monte Carlo simulation method in the failure probability estimation of caisson breakwaters in the complete life cycle. In this paper, the kernel method of importance sampling, which can greatly increase the efficiency of failure probability calculation of caisson breakwaters, is proposed to estimate the failure probability of caisson breakwaters in the complete life cycle. The effectiveness of the kernel method is investigated by an example. It is indicated that the calculation efficiency of the kernel method is over 10 times the common Monte Carlo simulation method.

An open cellular caisson breakwater

An open cellular caisson breakwater is a new type comoposite breakwater whose upper structure is an open chamfered caissons without bottom. It has the advantages of rational and compact configuration, good stability and low stress on its foundation ho.It is especially suitable for soft ground. The structural and hydraulic characteristics and the stability test results of this new type breakwater are presented in this paper.

Dynamic Stability Analysis of Caisson Breakwater in Lifetime Considering the Annual Frequency of Severe Storm

In the dynamic stability analysis of a caisson breakwater, most of current studies pay attention to the motion characteristics of caisson breakwaters under a single periodical breaking wave excitation. And in the lifetime stability analysis of caisson breakwater, it is assumed that the caisson breakwater suffers storm wave excitation once annually in the design lifetime. However, the number of annual severe storm occurrence is a random variable. In this paper, a series of random waves are generated by the Wen Sheng-chang wave spectrum, and the histories of successive and long-term random wave forces are built up by using the improved Goda wave force model. It is assumed that the number of annual severe storm occurrence is in the Poisson distribution over the 50-year design lifetime, and the history of random wave excitation is generated for each storm by the wave spectrum. The response histories of the caisson breakwater to the random waves over 50-year design lifetime are calculated and taken as a set of samples. On the basis of the Monte Carlo simulation technique, a large number of samples can be obtained, and the probability assessment of the safety of the breakwater during the complete design lifetime is obtained by statistical analysis of a large number of samples. Finally, the procedure of probability assessment of the breakwater safety is illustrated by an example.

Risk Analysis of Breakwater Caisson Under Wave Attack Using Load Surface Approximation

A new load surface based approach to the reliability analysis of caisson-type breakwater is proposed. Uncertainties of the horizontal and vertical wave loads acting on breakwater are considered by using the so-called load surfaces, which can be estimated as functions of wave height, water level, and so on. Then, the first-order reliability method（FORM） can be applied to determine the probability of failure under the wave action. In this way, the reliability analysis of breakwaters with uncertainties both in wave height and in water level is possible. Moreover, the uncertainty in wave breaking can be taken into account by considering a random variable for wave height ratio which relates the significant wave height to the maximum wave height. The proposed approach is applied numerically to the reliability analysis of caisson breakwater under wave attack that may undergo partial or full wave breaking.

Numerical Modelling Investigation of Wave Interaction on Composite Berm Breakwater

The breakwaters have experienced many changes during their construction history.These changes have been considered to improve their performance,depending on their environmental conditions and applications.Numerical modelling was conducted using FLOW-3 D software.In this study,the wave overtopping from composite berm breakwater as new conceptual structure and the pressure imposed on the composite berm breakwater are considered and investigated.The results show a decrease of 84.01,70.88 and 61.42 percent of the wave overtopping in the composite berm breakwater,in comparison to the rubble mound breakwater,horizontally caisson breakwater and caisson breakwater,respectively.Also,the pressure applied to the composite berm breakwater with the pressure applied to the horizontally caisson breakwater was compared and evaluated.Composite berm breakwater compared with horizontally caisson breakwater in P1,the amount of the obtained pressure decreased by 52.09%,in P2 the amount of the obtained pressure decreased by 63.07%,in P3 decreased by 76.09%and in Pu,this pressure reduced by53.92%.For the composite berm breakwater,the impact of three types of berms,homogenous berm(Type 1),a berm consisting of armor-filter(Type 2)and multi-layer berm(Type 3)with the aim of optimizing the hydraulic responses and wave interaction on the caisson of the breakwater was examined and evaluated.In total,Type 3 will be recommended with a significant reduction in the overtopping values and maximum pressure.

Parametric Study on a Caisson Based OWC Wave Energy Converting System

This study uses a numerical method to analyze the proposed model structure. Before the parametric analysis, a pre-analysis to make sure the analytical results are accountable, a verification analysis was performed. The results found are compared well with the limited experimental findings of Goda et al. and it is very encouraging to find that for the proposed method as an alternative for green energy developments, as long as an appropriate design is performed, an OWC combined with breakwater structure may provide an alternative for green energy system utilized in a harbor area. From the results of the first stage of parameter analysis that the size of the openings of the cell of converting system is variable, a traditional full opened cell is not necessary the most efficient design for the wave power conversion in terms of the variations of air pressure inside the cell and air speed through the outlet orifice that will drive the electricity power generator.