A 2D numerical model of wave run-up and overtopping

A two-dimensional (2D) numerical model of wave run-up and overtopping is presented. The model (called OTT-2D) is based on the 2D nonlinear shallow water (NLSW) equations on a sloping bed, including bed shear stress. These equations are solved using an upwind finite volume technique and a hierarchical Cartesian Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) algorithm. The 2D nature of the model means that it can be used to simulate wave transformation, run-up, overtopping and regeneration by obliquely incident and multi-directional waves over alongshore-inhomogeneous sea walls and complex, submerged or surface-piercing features. The numerical technique used includes accurate shock modeling, and uses no special shoreline-tracking algorithm or shoreline coordinate transformation, which means that noncontiguous flows and multiple shorelines can easily be simulated. The adaptivity of the model ensures that only those parts of the flow that require higher resolution (such as the region of the moving shoreline) receive it, resulting in a model with a high level of efficiency. The model is shown to accurately reproduce analytical and benchmark numerical solutions. Existing wave flume and wave basin datasets are used to test the ability of the model to approximate 1D and 2D wave transformation, run-up and overtopping. Finally, we study a 2D dataset of overtopping of random waves at off-normal incidence to investigate overtopping of a sea wall by long-crested waves. The data set is interesting as it has not been studied in detail before and suggests that, in some instances, overtopping at an angle can lead to more flooding than at normal incidence. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.