Three-dimensional numerical study of hydrodynamics around a vertical
wall abutment under combined waves and current
ABSTRACT
The combined wave-current interaction in the coastal zone is essential in determining mass and
sediment transport rates. The sediment is picked up by the waves and transported by the mean
horizontal flow. The combined wave-current motion changes the flow characteristics, horizontal and
vertical velocities, turbulent intensities, and shear stresses. A numerical investigation of
hydrodynamics around a Vertical wall abutment will be presented in this paper. An open-source CFD
program, REEF3D, is used to study hydrodynamics around Vertical wall abutments. The models
solve the Reynolds-averaged Naiver Stokes equation with k-ω turbulence closure to get the flow
hydrodynamics. In order to ensure the precision of the flow field, the model is altogether validated for
the hydrodynamics of different current and wave plus current conditions, where the currents and
waves are following and opposing each other. Initially, a grid convergence study was performed to
ensure that the Numerical wave tank is independent of the mesh size due to every computational level.
The numerical model is applied to simulate different case scenarios of hydrodynamics under different
combined waves and current conditions. The present study investigates hydrodynamic characteristics
of different combined actions of waves plus current conditions, where waves and currents follow and
oppose each other for offshore vertical wall abutment.
Keywords: Hydrodynamics, Sediment Transport, Scour Depth, Vertical Wall Abutment, Combined
Wave-current Interaction
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