Hamiltonian Boussinesq Simulations for Waves Entering a Harbor with Access Channel

Abstract

Numerical simulations are often used to predict the deformation of waves and their impact on structures in harbors and access channels. An underprediction of these waves could lead to structural failure or ship accidents, so accurate numerical models should be capable of capturing the complex physical processes correctly. In this contribution, the authors consider wave penetration into a harbor with a complex bathymetry from an access channel using numerical simulations with wave models in a software program. The wave models were derived based on consistent modeling using a variational principle for water waves to produce the dynamic equations in Hamiltonian form. By approximating the Hamiltonian, the so-called analytic Boussinesq (AB) model was used and discretized into a global spatial-spectral numerical method. Numerical results compared with laboratory experiments show better performance than in other publications on the same application.