Presentations Overview

Due to climate change extreme events will become more frequent and more intense in the future. Hence, a better understanding of the physical processes associated with highly unsteady flows is essential. Among these, tsunamis, storm surges and flash floods are the most common. Due to their rarity and...

Nature-based approaches aim to protect coastal ecosystems, but implementing them in urbanized coastal areas is challenging. Biomimetic solutions attempt to imitate natural habitats like kelps, but their use for coastal protection is non-existent due to the complexity of the geometry and hydrodynamic...

Facing increasing climate change threats like rising sea levels and intense storms, adapting coastal defense structures has become crucial. This study investigates the use of Stilling Wave Basins (SWB) on slope structures to mitigate wave overtopping, a cost-effective solution that avoids raising cr...

Coastal flooding from high surges and extreme waves induced by hurricanes and tsunamis significantly threatens low-elevated regions. Moreover, the sea level rise, derived from climate change, has resulted in shorelines advancing towards the land, exacerbating the flooding-induced damage in coastal c...

The large bottom roughness typical of coral reefs can be effective at reducing wave energy incident to coastlines through the dissipation induced by how wave-driven oscillatory flows interact with the roughness. A physical understanding of these fluid-structure interaction processes is essential in...

Recurved walls are used to reduce wave overtopping over breakwaters. However, the mechanisms determining their effectiveness in terms of reducing the overtopping rate are complex and not yet fully described. Most of the available equations for overtopping rate estimations correlate only to the relat...

The assessment of the coastal protection potential of dunes is far from being a streamlined, mature procedure, and it will demand more parameters than merely the dunes' height, dimensions or volume, but tentatively also their vegetation coverage. The role of stabilizing root components in the overal...

Two unique physical models of vegetated channels were executed to investigate flow exchange near vegetation: a small-scale experiment at TU Delft Water Lab and a large-scale experiment at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology - River Experiment Center (KICT-REC). These exp...

When investigating the transformation of waves and hydraulic responses within physical and numerical models, it is crucial to replicate the natural conditions as accurately as possible. This often involves replicating extremely nonlinear irregular waves in areas with intermediate or shallow water de...

This study investigates the hydrodynamic performance of the TECCO CELL system through physical modelling. This innovative coastal defence system was applied in Beesands (southwest England) in 2016 and delivered satisfactory erosion mitigation since installation. We made 1/10 scaled models of the ste...

During berthing operations, the bow thruster jet reflecting on the quay wall and the bed can lead to high flow velocities near the bed. This may scour the nearby bed when it is left unprotected, causing instability of the adjacent quay wall. Due to the complex flow field of the reflected jet, the de...

Among the most vulnerable areas in Europe are the coastal urban areas of the Macaronesia Islands territories, since they are characterized with urban settlements in low land areas, being highly exposed to flooding. Within the scope of sustainable development and at the same time with the aim of incr...

Harbors play a pivotal role in global trade, serving as vital gateways for the transportation of goods. These essential coastal infrastructures are subjected to relentless forces which can jeopardize their functionality and safety. Safe working conditions are mandatory for the operability of all kin...

The Parsian port, located in southern Iran, features a basin protected by breakwaters that extend to a seabed level of -31 m C.D. In the context of structures situated in deep waters, the toe berm emerges as the optimal choice for breakwater toe layout. Performing experimental investigations utilizi...

The AquaBreak Project aims at creating the AquaBreak Offshore System (AOS) to explore the synergies of seaweed aquaculture systems on food production and coastal protection in Portugal, which is a country particularly exposed to the maritime harsh conditions. The objective of the current study is to...

The aim of the present study is to investigate the interaction between waves and vegetation at the blade scale. The primary objectives are two: first, to introduce a direct numerical technique that involves a two-way coupling between a fluid solver and a structural solver, and second, to present nov...

The study aims to enhance the understanding of flow structure modulated by a model of a heterogeneous canopy of four different seagrass species under unidirectional currents, and compare these findings with metrics from canopies with a single species to understand the fundamental differences in flow...

Suspended sediment transport and retention within salt marshes is a key factor in their resilience against erosion associated with threats such as sea level rise and coastal squeeze. Salt marshes are vegetated intertidal wetlands found in temperate climate zones. Their presence contributes to flood ...

This paper presents the results of the analysis carried out to design a low-cost passive energy absorber for the multidirectional spectral wave tank of the IMARES-UCR group. Once built, reflection coefficient measurements were performed for different regular wave conditions to determine its behavior...

The influence of directional spreading of waves is significant for wave-induced loads, wave breaking and nonlinearity of the waves. For physical model testing performed at test facilities such as the Ocean and Coastal Engineering Laboratory at Aalborg University, it is crucial to validate if the tes...

The capabilities and performance of the newly built wave generation and passive absorption system in the Coastal & Ocean Basin (COB) wave tank are investigated. Together, both systems are designed to achieve high-quality wave fields inside the measurement volume of COB. An assessment of the accuracy...

This work presents novel large-scale wave flume experiments (on a scale of 1:7) on the influence of a foredune in front of a secondary dune during storm surge situations. Working hypothesis is that the foredune acts as a sediment buffer, damping incoming waves and reducing overall erosion on the sec...

Most offshore wind turbine structures are built with monopile type structures where some marine operations are conducted nearby. Therefore, proper wave estimation around the monopile is needed to assure safe marine operations. The trend of increasing monopile's diameter also adds the need to investi...

The aim of this research study is to perform experimental tests on a new morphable mini Wells turbine designed to operate in presence of waves with limited energy content which presents a high frequency of occurrence along the Mediterranean coasts. The small size and low investment costs of the turb...

Infragravity (IG) waves are low-frequency waves (0.0033 Hz < f < 0.05 Hz) that become important or even dominant compared to the sea-swell waves at the toe of a dike on a very or extremely shallow foreshore, therefore becoming important to the wave overtopping process. This paper presents the field ...

Comprehensive design guidelines and literature on wave impacts at stepped revetments are lacking. Laboratory experiments are essential for establishing design recommendations, yet prior small-scale studies are likely to be subjected to scale effects. This study quantifies scale effects of wave impac...

Traditionally, the evaluation of overtopping on coastal structures is carried out by the combination of meteo-oceanographic information and the analytical evaluation of the variable, through semi-empirical formulae.The meteo-oceanographic variables that allow the analytical calculation of overtoppin...