Solitary, irregular and focused wave impact on coastal bridge deck for different airgaps.

Abstract

Coastal bridge decks are subjected to wave impact due to the action of extreme wave events like tsunami and storm surges.  These events are more frequent in recent years and cause deck upliftment and destruction. Past studies mainly considered regular wave types to represent extreme wave events and the impact force is calculated. The main aim of the present study is to generate a focused wave to simulate an extreme wave condition in the numerical wave tank and to study the impact force on coastal bridge deck. Focused wave and irregular wave of same significant wave height and peak period are generated and comparison is done with solitary wave of same crest height to study the effects of different wave types on impact force. Focused wave height is giving higher impact force when comparing the irregular and solitary wave of same crest height.