Wave-induced dynamic pressure under rubble mound breakwaters with submerged berm: an experimental and numerical study

The main aim of the present work is to provide an experimental and numerical seabed pressure dataset acting beneath rubble mound breakwaters with submerged berms. The estimation of the seabed pressure variation under a breakwater with a berm, useful for designing such a kind of marine structure, needs to take into account the interaction of the structure with the waves and the soil. A parametric experimental study has been carried out by varying the berm configuration, the oshore wave conditions and the water depth at the toe of the breakwater, keeping constant the values of the porosity of the berm, the armor layer and the core. From the experimental findings, the role of submerged berms in attenuating the seabed pressure under porous structures has been identified. Then, the experimental data have been used to assess the reliability of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical model. Once validated, the numerical model has been used to extend the experimental dataset by performing a parametric numerical study. New empirical formulations, aiming to predict the seabed pressure under breakwaters with a berm, have been eventually proposed.