THE USE OF NUMERICAL MODELING IN THE PLANNING OF PHYSICAL MODEL TESTS IN A MULTIDIRECTIONAL WAVE BASIN

For the development of a new port of the A Coruña Port Authority, an extensive and careful analysis of wave propagation had to be done to determine design wave characteristics along the main breakwater, placed behind an irregular shoal. Preliminary numerical simulations showed that wave focusing takes place on the breakwater, and it was finally suggested to complement the numerical analysis with physical model tests in a multidirectional wave basin. Due to the large dimensions of the prototype area, several numerical models were applied to optimize the physical model lay-out (model scale, boundary conditions, location of wave gauges). All physical model test results were compared with results from a spectral wave propagation model GHOST simulations, showing good agreement on wave amplification in the focusing area behind the shoal. The combination of both numerical and physical modeling improved the knowledge on the problem studied. The observed influence of wave period and directional spreading on wave amplification behind the shoal was similar to the observations made by Vincent and Briggs (1989).