Wave Overtopping on Vertical Boundary and Water‐Surface Displacement

Abstract

A perturbation method representing a nonlinear gravity wave is applied to the vertical displacement of the water surface of a standing wave for estimating wave overtopping. The presented method predicts the surface displacement when the crest of the breakwater is lowered below the maximum water‐surface elevation while wave overtopping occurs. A theoretical investigation is conducted to study the behavior of a wave overtopping a vertical barrier. A method based on the wave energy is used to formulate the discharge‐water quantity due to wave overtopping, and the total amount of wave overtopping is calculated by integrating the water surface elevation at the barrier. Experiments were performed in a two‐dimensional wave channel, where a vertical barrier model was placed to verify the predictions. The surface displacement of standing waves was measured at the barrier while the flow over the barrier was collected in a tank. The surface displacement, calculated by the finite‐amplitude approximation is in agreement with test data, and the wave‐overtopping model of this research agrees with measurements.