Wave pressures on curved seawalls

Vertical seawalls and similar structures on the coastal regions are subjected to wave pressures high in magnitude and short in duration when impacted directly by breaking waves. These pressures and especially maximum pressure region, are significant in terms of stability and safety of the structure. It is necessary to measure these pressures and their distributions on the wall to be able to design structures strong enough to withstand wave effects. For this purpose, semi-empirical, namely impulse-momentum , and empirical methods are used. In this study, laboratory experiments were conducted, for varying wave conditions, to determine impact pressures caused by sea waves perfectly breaking on curved seawalls having different radius of curvature. The effect of radius of curvature on wave impact and pressures were investigated. Experimental results were compared with the results obtained using numerical methods. Key Words: Curved wall, impact pressure, seawall, breaking wave, impulse-momentum.