• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

An Overtopping Wave Energy Convertor (OWEC) is an offshore wave energy convertor used for collecting overtopping waves and converting the water pressure head into electric power through hydro turbines installed in a vertical duct affixed to the sea bed. A numerical wave tank based on the commercial computational fluid dynamics code Fluent is established for the corresponding analysis. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equation and two-phase VOF model are utilized to generate the 2D numerical linear propagating waves, which are validated by the overtopping experiment results. Calculations are made for several incident wave conditions and shape parameters for the overtopping device. Both the incident wave periods and heights have evident effects on the overtopping performance of the OWEC device. The computational analysis demonstrates that the present overtopping device is more compatible with longer incident wave periods.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.668-676
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• 2017

A two-dimensional numerical investigation is performed to study the influence of slot width of multi-stage stationary floating overtopping wave energy devices on overtopping flow rate and performance. The hydraulic efficiency based on captured crest energy of different device layouts is compared with that of single-stage device to determine the effect of the geometrical design. The results show optimal trends giving a huge increase in overtopping energy. Plots of efficiency versus the relative slot width show that, for multi-stage devices, the greatest hydraulic efficiency is achieved at an intermediate value of the variable within the parametric range considered, relative slot width of 0.15 and 0.2 depending on design layouts. Moreover, an application of adaptive slot width of multi-stage device is investigated. The numerical results show that the overall hydraulic efficiency of non-adaptive and adaptive slot devices are approximately on par. The effect of adaptive slot width on performance can be negligible.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.397-404
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• 2010

Laboratory tests of wave overtopping rates for a rubble mound breakwaters armoured Tetrapod were carried out, with varying design waves, crest berm widths and crest freeboards. The objective of this study is to investigate overtopping performance and to examine the characteristics of the widely used overtopping prediction models through the results of laboratory tests. Laboratory tests show that structure slope and wave periods have a considerable influence on overtopping rates, but the difference of overtopping rates related to crest berm widths is slight. Owen(1980)'s prediction considerably overestimates compared to the measured valued. Prediction of Van der Meer et al.(1998) underestimates only for steep slope($cot{\alpha}$=1.5). Besley(1999)'s and Pedersen(1996)'s predictions have a relatively good agreement with the measured results for slopes with a broader crest berm width. In general, best agreement between measured and predicted overtopping rates is observed using modified Pedersen(1996)'s formula for all test conditions.

• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2015

Post-Katrina investigations revealed that most earthen levee damage occurred on the levee crest and landward-side slope as a result of either wave overtopping, storm surge overflow, or a combination of both. In this paper, combined wave overtopping and storm surge overflow of a levee embankment strengthened with high performance turf reinforcement mat (HPTRM) system was studied in a purely Lagrangian and meshless approach, two-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model. After the SPH model is calibrated with full-scale overtopping test results, the overtopping discharge, flow thickness, flow velocity, average overtopping velocity, shear stress, and soil erosion rate are calculated. New equations are developed for average overtopping discharge. The shear stresses on landward-side slope are calculated and the characteristics of soil loss are given. Equations are also provided to estimate soil loss rate. The range of the application of these equations is discussed.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.947-964
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• 2014

Rubble mound breakwaters protect the coastal line against severe erosion caused by wave action. This study examined the performance of different sizes and properties (i.e. height of vertical wall and tetrapod size) of rubble mound breakwaters on reducing the overtopping discharge. The physical model used in this study was derived based on an actual rubble mound in Busan Yacht Harbor. This research attempts to fill the gap in practical knowledge on the combined effect of the armor roughness and vertical wall on wave overtopping in rubble mound breakwaters. The main governing parameters used in this study were the vertical wall height, variation of the tetrapod weights, initial water level elevation, and the volume of overtopping under constant wave properties. The experimental results showed that the roughness factor differed according to the tetrapod size. Furthermore, the overtopping discharge with no vertical wall was similar to that with relatively short vertical walls (${\gamma}_v=1$). Therefore, the experimental results highlight the importance of the height of the vertical wall in reducing overtopping discharge. Moreover, a large tetrapod size may allow coastal engineers to choose a shorter vertical wall to save cost, while obtaining better performance.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2012

Overtopping Wave Energy Convertor (OWEC) is an offshore wave energy convertor, which comprises the circular ramp and reservoir. It collects the overtopped waves and converting water pressure head into electric power through the hydro-turbines installed in the vertical duct, which is fixed in the sea bed. The performance of OWEC can be represented by the operating water heads of the device, which depends on the amount of the wave water overtopping into the reservoir. In the present paper, the reservoir with the duct connecting to the sea water are studied in the 3D numerical wave tank, which has been developed based on the computational fluid dynamics software Fluent 6.3. Both the overtopping motion and the discharges of the reservoir are investigated together, and several shape parameters and incident wave conditions are varied to demonstrate their effects on the performance of OWEC.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.359-371
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• 2020

The performance of a multi-level overtopping wave energy converter (OWEC) has been numerically and experimentally investigated in a two-dimensional wave tank in order to study the effects of opening width of additional reservoirs. The device is a fixed OWEC consisting of an inclined ramp together with several reservoirs at different levels. A particle-based numerical simulation utilizing the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is used to simulate the flow behavior around the OWEC. Additionally, an experimental model is also built and tested in a small wave flume in order to validate the numerical results. A comparison in energy captured performance between single-level and multi-level devices has been proposed using the hydraulic efficiency. The enhancement of power capture performance is accomplished by increasing an overtopping flow rate captured by the extra reservoirs. However, a noticeably large opening of the extra reservoirs can result in a reduction in the power efficiency. The overtopping flow behavior into the reservoirs is also presented and discussed. Moreover, the results of hydrodynamic performance are compared with a similar study, of which a similar tendency is achieved. Nevertheless, the LBM simulations consume less computational time in both pre-processing and calculating phases.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-64
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• 2015

This paper presents a method for assessing the risk of wave run-up and overtopping of existing coastal defences and for analysing the probability of failure of the structures under future hydraulic conditions. The recent UK climate projections are employed in the investigations of the influence of changing environments on the long-term performance of sea defences. In order to reduce the risk of wave run-up and overtopping caused by rising sea level and to maintain the present-day allowances for wave run-up height and overtopping discharge, the future necessary increase in crest level of existing structures is investigated. Various critical failure mechanisms are considered for reliability analysis, i.e., erosion of crest by wave overtopping, failure of seaside revetment, and internal erosions within earth sea dykes. The time-dependent reliability of sea dykes is analysed to give probability of failure with time. The results for an example earth dyke section show that the necessary increase in crest level is approximately double of sea level rise to maintain the current allowances. The probability of failure for various failure modes of the earth dyke has a significant increase with time under future hydraulic conditions.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.651-659
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• 2018

A multi-level overtopping wave energy converter was designed according to the large tidal range and small wave heights in China. It consists of two reservoirs with sloping walls at different levels. The reservoirs share a common outflow duct and a low-head axial turbine. The experimental study was carried out in a laboratory wave-flume to investigate the overtopping performance of the device. The depth-gauges were used to measure the variation of the water level in the reservoirs. The data was processed to derive the time-averaged overtopping discharges. It was found that the lower reservoir can store wave waters at the low water level and break the waves which try to climb up to the upper reservoir. The upper sloping angle and the opening width of the lower reservoir both have significant effects on the overtopping discharges, which can provide more information to the design and optimization of this type of device.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.195-202
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• 2000

Recently, wave dissipating structures with porosity are widely used to improve habor tranquility and to reduce the wave overtopping rate. In this study, hydraulic model tests were performed to examine hydraulic efficiency of slit caissons, igloo blocks, and hollow blocks. The model tests showed that slit caissons were the most effective in dissipating wave energy under moderate wave conditions. Slit caissons and igloo blocks showed no significant difference in reducing wave overtopping rate. Hallow blocks are less effective in reducing wave overtopping rate than slit caissons and igloo blocks lU1der higher wave energy conditions.