Composite modelling of interactions between beaches and structures

Abstract

An overview of Composite Modelling (CM) is presented, as elaborated in the EU/HYDRALAB joint research project Composite Modelling of the Interactions Between Beaches and Structures. An introduction and a review of the main literature on CM in the hydraulic community are given. In Section 3, the case studies of CM of the seven partners participating in this project are discussed. The focus is on the methodologies used and their impact on the modelling approach, rather than the results of the experiments per se. A further section presents reflections on key elements in CM, as they emerged in the various case studies. The related subject of Good Modelling Practice is summarized in Section 5. Then guidelines are given on how to decide if CM may be beneficial, and how to set up a CM experiment. It is concluded that CM in the hydraulic community is still in its infancy but involves challenging research with significant potential.

Keywords:

• Beach
• composite modelling
• hydraulic scale modelling
• numerical modelling
• structure

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme through the grant to the budget of the Integrated Infrastructure Initiative HYDRALAB III, Contract no. 022441 (RII3). Co-funding was received from Deltares, HR Wallingford, Danish Council for Strategic Research (Project 09-066869), Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU-Germany) and Offshore-ürger-Windpark Butendiek GmbH & Co. KG (Reference no. 0329973).