Main abstract
Downtime in ports is often dominated by the nearshore wave climate and the resulting wave penetration into port basins. Geometry complexities and specific bathymetric influences, such as the effect of entrance channels, will complicate the description of wave penetration into ports and will make verifying wave conditions in relation to expected port downtime far from trivial (De Jong et al., 2016, PIANC COPEDEC).
Wave conditions inside ports can be determined during the port design process with physical scale model tests or with numerical tools. Several types of numerical wave penetration models are available, including spectral models, mild-slope models, Boussinesq-type models and (multi-layer) flow models adapted to represent also short waves. These different types of numerical wave models all have their own specific advantages and drawbacks. And although the fundamentals of such wave models have often been validated in detail, validation of the performance of these models for representing wave penetration into ports is often rather limited. One of the main reasons for this is that datasets for validation are generally quite scarce. As a result, downtime estimates based on the outcomes of these numerical models may be inaccurate and unreliable.
Field measurement datasets for model validation are often limited in duration and may include only a few observation locations. Furthermore, these may lack relevant extreme conditions. As an alternative, Deltares has performed throughout the years several physical scale model tests on wave penetration under a wide range of controlled conditions and including several output locations in each scale model setup. These test series ranged from full realistic port layouts to more schematic situations. The former were aimed at verifying the performance of port extension plans, whereas the latter were intended to highlight and record specific aspects of wave penetration processes, some particularly created to serve as validation material. This has allowed Deltares to validate its numerical wave penetration models in detail and it has given us detailed insights into the capabilities and limitations of the different types of numerical wave penetration models (see e.g. De Jong et al., 2016, PIANC COPEDEC).
In line with its ‘Dare-to-share’ policy, Deltares now wants to make the most relevant of these datasets available to interested parties, to be applied in research initiatives on numerical model validation together with Deltares. The available datasets will at least include one full port layout, a schematic port layout with a captive ship and a series of schematic port layouts increasing stepwise in complexity. We believe that by sharing these data and by jointly working on the validation and development of numerical models we can get most out of the available laboratory measurement data and arrive at the most interesting and relevant results.
The paper and presentation will give an overview of the different datasets on wave penetration available at Deltares. It will also include an overview of analyses based on these data sets made so far, which can serve as starting point for further cooperations with interested parties.
Added value to conference attendees
Attendees will hear about validation possibilities for tools describing the dominant factors influencing port downtime. Engineers and researchers will hear about data availability on these topics and they will be updated on the cooperation opportunities that Deltares proposes. This will allow port designers and model developers to validate their models with suitable and systematic datasets, contributing to the development of such tools. The proposed collaboration encourages model comparison as well as publishing of results, which will benefit port designers, engineers and users of port infrastructure.