A Relationship Between Breaking Wave Characteristics and Slamming Forces Acting on Jacket Structures

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate and describe the relationship between breaking wave characteristics and total slamming forces acting on a jacket structure in shallow water, based on the experimental data collected during the WaveSlam experiment. Total slamming forces were filtered from the measurement, using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). From these results impulse slamming forces, peak slamming forces, slamming coefficients, rising time and duration time were calculated. The transformation of the breaking wave parameters along the flume was analysed. Then, breaking points for each wave were identified, based on parameter changes along the flume, combined with visual analysis of video recordings of slamming events. The relationship between slamming forces and geometrical parameters at breaking was investigated. It was found that the breaking wave forces and breaking wave forces' parameters depend most strongly on breaking point location, breaking wave height, wave front steepness and horizontal wave asymmetry.