Author(s): María Victoria Moragues Gómez, Pilar Díaz Carrasco, María Clavero Gilabert, Miguel Ortega Sanchez, Miguel A. Losada

Linked Author(s): mclavero, Miguel Ortega Sánchez, Miguel A. Losada

Keywords: Climate change; Coastal structures; Breakwaters; Overtopping;

Abstract: Among the main consequences of the sea level rise associated to the climate variability will be the impacts on coastal structures. Up until now the attention has been traditionally focus on low-lying coastal areas that will suffer severe flooding, but scarce studies have analyzed how the performance of structures will be modified. In this work we studied the impact of the sea level rise in the response of coastal breakwaters and, particularly, in one of the main failure modes: overtopping discharge. For that, we carried out a series of experimental tests in the laboratory of the University of Granada simulating different sea level rise scenarios. The modified Iribarren number has been considered as an important factor in the analysis of the hydraulic performance of wave run-up and overtopping. We can conclude that wave overtopping discharge and volume increases as relative freeboard decreases, and that the higher the sea level rise, the greater the overtopping discharge. However, the experimental tests indicate that predicting a relation between both values is not straightforward and careful experimental programs must be performed in the future.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/38WC092019-0273

Year: 2019