Laboratory Study Of Wave Propagation On Coral Reef

As a natural barrier of coral islands, coral reefs with a steep slope in front have long been attracting the attention of scholars. With the increasing development of the South Sea China, engineering significance of coral reefs has got more and more excavation. Numbers of structures have been set up on reef islands in foreign countries. When the relative large waves from deep water propagate to the floor in front of the reef slope, the severe water turbulence brought by wave breaking could cause serious local scour to structures. Due to the complexity of coral reefs, there has always been a lack of comprehensive understanding of wave propagation on such topographies. And also has there been a long dispute when it comes to the water set-up on coral reefs.This paper reviews previous approaches to modeling wave propagation across coral reefs and discusses the influence of reef morphology and incident wave condition upon these flows. Laboratory measurements upon a two-dimensional horizontal reef platform with a steep reef face provide the basis for extending a previous theoretical analysis for wave set-up on a reef as well as the flow across. By comparing the data with different water depth and incident wave conditions, discussed the general rules of wave deformation, wave attenuation, water set-up and wave generated flow. The relationship between dimensionless relative water set-up and relative submerged depth on reef flat was fitted. Based on experimental data, set up a numerical model using OpenFOAM to discuss the wave generated flow under different incident wave conditions.In this paper, deep water wave propagation across a reef flat with a steep(1:1) slope was comprehensively analyzed, including the wave deformation, wave attenuation as well as the spectrum of crushing wave. This research could provide experimental data to practical engineering design as well as to numerical modelling on wave propagation on such topography in the future...