Experimental Investigation of the Interaction between Vertical Flexible Seawall and Random Sea Waves

Seawalls are sheltering structures used for protecting the coastal regions against wave induced forces. Storm, movement of the ships, explosions caused by the attacks to the platforms and issues like these could result in the creation of random waves in significant areas of the port. Because of random nature of the wave behavior, the application of physical models for the study of wave-structure interaction can be quite efficient. In the present research, physical models of thin flexible walls were constructed and tested in a wave flume subject to generated random waves. The water surface variations and the strains at the base of the wall were recorded using sensors; and the relationship between the strain and the wave height was obtained using the zero up-crossing method. The results indicate that the strain-wave height relationship is linear. Since the behavior of the wall is within the elastic region, the relationship between the strain and the flexural moment at the base of the wall follows the Hook’s Law; and accordingly the relationship between the wave height and flexural moment at the base of the wall was obtained.