SIMULATION OF PLUNGING WAVE IMPACT ON A VERTICAL WALL

We present a numerical study of the impact of a two-dimensional plungi ng wave on a rigid vertical wall in the context of potential flow. The plunging wave impinging the wall is generated using a mixed-Eulerian- lagrangian (MEL) boundary-integral scheme. The initial stage of the im pact is characterized by an oblique impact of a liquid wedge on the wa ll and is solved using a similarity solution. Following the initial im pact, the MEL simulation is continued to capture the transient impact process. The effect of an air cushion trapped between the plunger and the wall is considered. In addition to details such as temporal evolut ions and surface profiles, the main interests are the maximum impact p ressure on the wall and its rise time. To arrive at appropriate scalin g laws for these, simulations are performed and correlations are explo red for a broad range of local plunging wave kinematic and geometric p arameters. To assess the present results, direct comparisons are made with the experiment of Chan & Melville (1988). Reasonable quantitative agreement is obtained and likely sources for discrepancies are identi fied and discussed.