Some coastal infrastructures (i.e. intakes, outfalls, gates) incorporate singular elements (meshes, nets or grids) which, through their interaction with the water flow, can produce large changes in the water level (upstream and downstream) and forces on them. In order to characterize both the head losses and the drag coefficient in local elements of hydraulic/coastal infrastructures, a composite methodology - based on physical and numerical modeling at 1:1 scale (prototype) - has been developed.
The developed methodology includes the use of IHCantabria wave-current flume to calibrate the numerical model, and the OpenFOAM numerical model to extend the range of hydraulic conditions and geometric configurations. Finally, the drag coefficients and the local head losses were obtained. The successful application of this methodology has been verified in several projects and by using different facilities at IHCantabria; based on the obtained results, optimizations in final designs were proposed.
