Numerical and experimental investigation of wave overtopping of barriers

We present a study of wave overtopping of barriers. The phenomenon of the wave overtopping over emerged structures is reproduced both numerically and experimentally. The numerical simulations are carried out by a numerical scheme for three-dimensional free-surface flows, which is based on the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in a novel integral form on a time-dependent coordinate system. In the adopted numerical scheme, a novel wet-dry technique, based on the exact solution of the Riemann problem over the dry bed, is proposed. The experimental tests are carried out by adopting a nonintrusive and continuous-in-space image-analysis technique, which is able to properly identify the free surface even in very shallow waters or breaking waves. A comparison between numerical and experimental results, for several wave and water-depth conditions, is shown.