Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Numerical investigation on the breakwater stability under wave action based on the OpenFOAM
Rulun Liu a, c, d, Enjin Zhao *, a, c, d, Hao Qin a, c, d, Lin Mu b, c, Yan Li b, ca

College of Marine Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.
b College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
c Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China.
dShenzhen Research Institute, China University of Geosciences, Shenzhen, China.

breakwaters have been designed. Among them, comb-type breakwater
has good application prospect. Comb-type breakwater is a new type ofstructure, which is based on the traditional vertical caisson breakwater,
and is formed by replacing some caissons with wing plate. Each unit
consists of three parts: main caisson, wing plate on both sides and upper
breast wall structure. In the study of fluid-solid coupling, Zhao (2020)
investigated the effects of the different combined waves and the local
scour on the submarine pipeline by constructing a numerical wave tankwhich is applied for the generation of combined wave of solitary wave
and current. By developing a numerical wave box to generate tsunamilike waves, Sun (2020) investigated the effects of tsunami-like waves ofdifferent heights on bridges. Dong (2003) studied the hydrodynamic
characteristics of comb-type breakwaters under the action of regular andirregular waves by physical model experiments and considered various
cases, and finally obtained the empirical formulas for wave reflection
coefficient and discount coefficient. Fang (2010) analyzed thehydrodynamic characteristics of non-permeable comb-type breakwaters
under the action of irregular waves and proposed an improvement
scheme. Zhang (2011) established a three-dimensional numerical pool tosimulate the interaction between various waves and comb-typebreakwaters and obtained an empirical formula for the wave propagation
coefficient. Comb-type breakwaters have also been studied by manyscholars in recent years. Wang (2018) proposed an analytical solution for
the interaction of oblique waves with comb-type breakwaters based onlinear potential theory, and the team published an article (Wang, 2019)the following year that presented a three-dimensional analytical solution
for the interaction of oblique waves with comb-type breakwaters,
explaining the variables caused by the interaction of multiple reflected
and transmitted waves. Zhang (2018) presented a three-dimensional
analytical solution for the interaction of oblique waves with comb-typebreakwaters based on the three-dimensional numerical wave flume basedon the internal wave generation method used to numerically simulate theinteraction between comb-type breakwaters and waves. The criticalcondition dimensionless control parameters for quantifying the impact
wave forces were proposed, along with the conceptual design of theopenings at the bottom of the superstructure that can reduce the impact
wave forces. But the comparison of the hydrodynamic properties oftransmissive comb-type breakwaters and traditional caisson breakwaters

ABSTRACTAs an underwater structure for blocking and eliminating waves,
breakwater can effectively reduce the influence of waves on the ports
and their coasts. It is of great significance and practical value in
extending the service life of the port and reducing the incidence ofaccidents. In this paper, based on the finite volume method theory, athree-dimensional numerical wave pool model is established by using theopen source computational fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM andwave2foam library. The propagation process of ocean waves is simulated
by solitary waves and regular waves respectively. Analyzing interaction
between breakwater and solitary waves and regular waves, and themechanical characteristics and hydrodynamic characteristics ofbreakwater under different wave action are obtained. The test results
show that under the same height and width, there is little difference inwave dissipation performance between comb-type breakwater andinclined breakwater, but the cost of comb-type breakwater is lower, so it
is more suitable for practical application. The work of this paper provides
reference and help for the follow-up study of the interaction between
waves and embankments using OpenFOAM.

KEY WORDS: Breakwater; Numerical simulation; OpenFOAM; Wa
ve-structure interaction; Wave2Foam
INTRODUCTION
As an in-water structure that blocks and eliminates waves, a breakwatercan effectively reduce the impact of waves on the harbor and its shoreline.
It has important significance and practical value to extend the service lifeof the port and reduce the incidence of accidents. As the economy grows,
the need to develop more ports is increasing, and the natural shorelinethat can be directly used is becoming more and more scarce. Therefore,
breakwaters have become an indispensable complementary facility inport construction. With the development of science and technology andthe strengthening of marine ecological civilization, more and more new2761