Impact pressures due to breaking solitary wave exerted on a vertical wall

Breaking waves impacts on vertical or sloping breakwaters are one of the most severe and dangerous loads that maritime structures can suffer. The present study is concerned with a theoretical approach, which is based on the momentum impulse, to simulate the impact pressures of solitary wave exerted on a vertical breakwater. The theoretical impact pressures are determined using varied velocity before impact process. The advancing solitary wave can simply be considered as a two-dimensional mass of water moving toward a vertical rigid wall with initial velocity. The impulse momentum is calculated by using the velocities just in front of the breakwater between the time the impact pressure first begins to act and the time when the forward velocity becomes almost zero. By using precise velocity field, the general mechanism of impact pressure histories on vertical breakwater obtained is more reasonable than those obtained by previous researchers. The simulation results show reasonable agreements with the laboratory data.