Simulation of rubble mound breakwater to investigate the effect of geometry on its stability

In this study, computational fluid dynamics method has been used to investigate the effect of breakwater geometry on its stability. So far, there have been many studies on the stability of rubble mound breakwaters, but the effect of breakwater geometry on stability is not yet fully understood. CFD simulation have been carried out in a two dimensional (2D) frame by solving the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. using VOF (Volume of Fluid) method for tracking free surface. The geometry of the model is created by the Gambit mesh generator software and export to fluent commercial software for solving governing equation. The main goal is to investigate the effect of geometric parameters on rubble mound breakwater stability. finally influence of geometry parameters on stability are examined and the results Shows what slopes and armor units are appropriate for the most stability. Also the results are compared with laboratory studies and shows good agreement between the present model and the experimental data.

Keywords:

breakwater , numerical simulation , CFD , geometry effect