• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.136-145
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• 2007

When waves propagating over an underwater shoal break at the top of the shoal, wave heights are drastically decreased in the downstream breaking zone, but a secondary current shooting downstream with strong velocity can be induced by the breaking waves themselves. In the case that an offshore structure is placed in the breaking zone, the estimation of wave farce purely based on the visible wave height may cause an under-design of the structure. Thus, for the safe design of the structure, the breaking wave induced current should be necessarily considered in the comprehensive estimation of design load. In the present study, Boussinesq equation model to calculate the wave height distribution and breaking wave induced current was set up and applied to the scheme of a hydraulic model test previously undertaken. Based on the results of the Boussinesq model, fluid forces acting on the model structure were calculated and compared with the experimental results. The importance of the breaking wave induced current was quantitatively assessed by comparing fluid forces with or without current.