English

Extreme wave runup on a vertical cliff

Classical Physics 2020-05-26 v4 Fluid Dynamics Geophysics

Abstract

Wave impact and run-up onto vertical obstacles are among the most important phenomena which must be taken into account in the design of coastal structures. From linear wave theory, we know that the wave amplitude on a vertical wall is twice the incident wave amplitude with weakly nonlinear theories bringing small corrections to this result. In this present study, however, we show that certain simple wave groups may produce much higher run-ups than previously predicted, with particular incident wave frequencies resulting in run up heights exceeding the initial wave amplitude by a factor of 5, suggesting that the notion of the design wave used in coastal structure design may need to be revisited. The results presented in this study can be considered as a note of caution for practitioners, on one side, and as a challenging novel material for theoreticians who work in the field of extreme wave - coastal structure interaction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1303.2641,
  title  = {Extreme wave runup on a vertical cliff},
  author = {Francesco Carbone and Denys Dutykh and John M. Dudley and Frédéric Dias},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.2641},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

13 pages, 7 figures, 44 references. Other author's papers can be downloaded from http://www.denys-dutykh.com/

R2 v1 2026-06-21T23:40:14.090Z