As an underwater structure for blocking and eliminating waves, breakwater can effectively reduce the influence of waves on the ports and their coasts. It is of great significance and practical value in extending the service life of the port and reducing the incidence of accidents. In this paper, based on the finite volume method theory, a three-dimensional numerical wave pool model is established by using the open source computational fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM and wave2foam library. The propagation process of ocean waves is simulated by solitary waves and regular waves respectively. Analyzing interaction between breakwater and solitary waves and regular waves, and the mechanical characteristics and hydrodynamic characteristics of breakwater under different wave action are obtained. The test results show that under the same height and width, there is little difference in wave dissipation performance between comb-type breakwater and inclined breakwater, but the cost of comb-type breakwater is lower, so it is more suitable for practical application. The work of this paper provides reference and help for the follow-up study of the interaction between waves and embankments using OpenFOAM.
As an in-water structure that blocks and eliminates waves, a breakwater can effectively reduce the impact of waves on the harbor and its shoreline. It has important significance and practical value to extend the service life of the port and reduce the incidence of accidents. As the economy grows, the need to develop more ports is increasing, and the natural shoreline that can be directly used is becoming more and more scarce. Therefore, breakwaters have become an indispensable complementary facility in port construction. With the development of science and technology and the strengthening of marine ecological civilization, more and more new breakwaters have been designed. Among them, comb-type breakwater has good application prospect. Comb-type breakwater is a new type of structure, which is based on the traditional vertical caisson breakwater, and is formed by replacing some caissons with wing plate. Each unit consists of three parts: main caisson, wing plate on both sides and upper breast wall structure. In the study of fluid-solid coupling, Zhao (2020) investigated the effects of the different combined waves and the local scour on the submarine pipeline by constructing a numerical wave tank which is applied for the generation of combined wave of solitary wave and current. By developing a numerical wave box to generate tsunami-like waves, Sun (2020) investigated the effects of tsunami-like waves of different heights on bridges. Dong (2003) studied the hydrodynamic characteristics of comb-type breakwaters under the action of regular and irregular waves by physical model experiments and considered various cases, and finally obtained the empirical formulas for wave reflection coefficient and discount coefficient. Fang (2010) analyzed the hydrodynamic characteristics of non-permeable comb-type breakwaters under the action of irregular waves and proposed an improvement scheme. Zhang (2011) established a three-dimensional numerical pool to simulate the interaction between various waves and comb-type breakwaters and obtained an empirical formula for the wave propagation coefficient. Comb-type breakwaters have also been studied by many scholars in recent years. Wang (2018) proposed an analytical solution for the interaction of oblique waves with comb-type breakwaters based on linear potential theory, and the team published an article (Wang, 2019) the following year that presented a three-dimensional analytical solution for the interaction of oblique waves with comb-type breakwaters, explaining the variables caused by the interaction of multiple reflected and transmitted waves. Zhang (2018) presented a three-dimensional analytical solution for the interaction of oblique waves with comb-type breakwaters based on the three-dimensional numerical wave flume based on the internal wave generation method used to numerically simulate the interaction between comb-type breakwaters and waves. The critical condition dimensionless control parameters for quantifying the impact wave forces were proposed, along with the conceptual design of the openings at the bottom of the superstructure that can reduce the impact wave forces. But the comparison of the hydrodynamic properties of transmissive comb-type breakwaters and traditional caisson breakwaters has been studied by many scholars. The comparison with the traditional inclined breakwater is still blank. Therefore, in this work, a comparison between the hydrodynamic properties of comb-type breakwaters and traditional caisson breakwaters has been conducted. Therefore, in this work, a numerical pool for wave-breakwater interaction is established based on OpenFOAM V1812 and Waves2Foam wave toolkit. An improved VOF method is used for free liquid capture. In this paper, firstly, the controlling equations, wave creation and dissipation methods in the numerical model are introduced, followed by the partitioning of the mesh. And then the simulation results of the 3D numerical pool are described. Finally, the conclusion is stated.
