CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

A study on Planning the layout & optimum location of a work harbour -Karwar, West Coast of India.
J.K.Panigrahi, P.N. Ananth*, Sayed Munavar Ali and N. Uday Bhaskar L&T RAMBLL Consulting Engineers Limited, Chennai, India. (* Former employee) (Abstract: Wave Climate of an area plays an important role for deciding the harbor Layout. In this study the authors are carried out planning of a work harbor based on the offshore & nearshore wave characteristics. The wave climate of the harbor is established by analyzing the directional wave buoy data measured off the Karwar project location. A wave rose diagram is prepared and the predominant wave directions approaching to the site are identified. It is observed that during SW Monsoon waves of 2.5-5 m are arrive at the Harbor. Hence the harbor is planned to afford good protection to the vessels and barges used for the breakwater construction. The advanced mathematical modeling techniques are used to transform the waves and evaluate tranquility conditions inside the harbor. The selection of the optimum location for a harbor and planning of the layout including the breakwater layout are decided from the results of model simulations.) 1.0 INTRODUCTION

The construction of breakwaters for a new harbour to be located along the West Coast of India necessitated the construction of a temporary work harbour adjacent to the location of the main harbour. The site is subjected to rough weather conditions in the Southwest Monsoon season (June September), during which the wave heights vary from 2.5-5.0m. Hence, it was essential that the work harbour be located in such a way that it affords good protection to the vessels and barges used for the breakwater construction. Numerical modelling of the near shore wave along the coast was carried out using MIKE 21 software, to arrive at the nearshore wave characteristics, along the coast. In this paper, the results of numerical model studies using the near shore spectral wind wave model, which were used in selecting the location, planning and design of the work harbour are presented. In addition to these, the wave tranquility within the proposed work harbour was also investigated for various directions of wave approach using the Bosnessque wave model. 2.0 Study Area Location and Field Surveys

2.1 General The work harbour is to be located in Kwada Bay, along the West Coast of India, between the existing major ports of Murmugoa and Mangalore. The northwestern portion of the bay is sheltered from the waves approaching the bay from the west and northwest by the Arge Cape as shown in Figure 1. Moreover, this portion is also protected from waves approaching the shore from the WSW and SW by the Arge Island. The Manzel creek opens into the bay in its northwestern corner and its circulation is mainly determined by the tidal variation in the bay and the freshwater influx during the rainy season. The rest

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

of the bay is exposed to direct wave attack from W and SSW. In order to establish the accurate bathymetry, seabed morphology, geological features and to determine the sub surface features of Kwada Bay, bathymetric and seabed surveys were carried out. 2.2 Bathymetry

The results of the bathymetric survey of Kwada Bay are also presented in Figure 1. The general bathymetry indicates that the depths are much lower in the NW part compared to the rest of the bay. The survey indicated that the depth varied from 3m close to the mouth of Manzel Creek to 11m in the SE region. The orientation of the bottom contours is nearly parallel to the coast (NW-SE) in most parts of the bay except in the NW region where they tend to become shore normal (NE-SW).

Figure 1. Study area Location and Bathymetry

3.0

NUMERICAL MODEL STUDIES FOR OPTIMUM WORK HARBOUR LOCATION General

3.1

The numerical modeling in order to establish the nearshore wave climate, flow pattern and circulation, and sand transport in Kwada Bay where the work harbour is to be located was carried out using MIKE-21 software developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute. A mathematical model of Kwada Bay was established using the digitized nearshore bathymetry obtained from the bathymetric survey along with the bathymetry data from existing hydrographic charts. The nearshore wave modeling was carried out to determine the effect of transformations in shallow water and to determine areas within Kwada Bay that are naturally protected against predominant offshore waves by the Arge Cape and Arge Island.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

3.2

Nearshore wave modeling using MIKE 21 NSW

Wave measurements were carried out using a directional wave buoy, at 16m water depth close to the site during the period April 1988 to March 1991. The results of the analysis of these data showed that the wave field during the pre-southwest monsoon (March May) is characterized by long period swells from the SW and the significant wave heights are less than 1.0m. However during the SW monsoon (June September), the direction of wave approach varies form 220-260 and the average significant wave height increases to 2.0m. The mean wave period varies between 6-8 seconds. The results also indicate that over 85% of the measured wave spectra had H S less than 2.5m, and over 95% of the spectra had period between 6-8 s. The percentage of occurrence of waves for 240o -270o was over 90%, showing that the SW monsoon waves are wind seas approaching the coast mainly from the WSW. During the Northeast Monsoon (October February), the wave field is dominated by swells from the SSW, with very small wind seas form the NW. The significant wave height during this season is less than 0.5m The work harbour is to be located in Kwada Bay, which is sheltered from waves approaching the coast from the west by the Arge Cape and Arge Island. However, the Bay is exposed to direct attack from waves approaching the coast from the South Westerly and Southerly directions that could result in high waves reaching the Bay during the Southwest Monsoon (June- September). The nearshore wave climate in the Kwada Bay has been established using the MIKE 21 Nearshore spectral wave (NSW) model, in order to determine the predominant wave directions and the associated wave heights and periods, for the prevailing offshore wave conditions. These nearshore wave parameters will form the basis for the layout, alignment and detail design of the breakwaters. They will also be used in the subsequent Hydrodynamic and Sand Transport simulations to compute the flow pattern and sediment movement. The offshore boundary of the NSW model area corresponds to the depth at which the wave measurements were carried out during 1988-1991. Four offshore wave directions viz. SSW, SW, WSW, and W, which occur during the pre-SW and SW monsoon seasons, were considered for the simulation of nearshore wave fields. Waves from NW, which occur during the NE monsoon, were not considered as the bay is completely protected from these waves by the Arge Cape. In order to determine the design wave heights to be used in the design of work harbour breakwaters, the simulations were carried out for deep water significant wave height corresponding to a 50-year return period i.e. 5.1m. An average period (Tm) of 8s and a water level of +2.0m, which corresponds to the high water during spring tide, were considered in all the simulations.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

Figure 2. Nearshore Wave pattern for Deep Water Hs=5.1, Tm=8s, Dir=WSW The nearshore wave distribution for extreme waves from the WSW are presented in Figure 2. The results of the NSW simulations show that the northwestern part of the bay is well protected from waves from the W and WSW, with nearshore wave height (Hs) being less than 1.5m even for severe offshore wave conditions. However, the bay is more exposed to waves from the SW and SSW with nearshore wave heights increasing to 2.5m in this case. The nearshore wave direction is generally southerly, varying between 180210 for deep water waves form SW and WSW. The predominant offshore wave direction is WSW-W with an average Hs of 2.0 m during the SW Monsoon while long swells with Hs less than 1.0m approach the coast from the SW during the pre-monsoon period. Considering these conditions the wave heights in the northwestern part of Kwada Bay is bound to be less than 1.0m, for most of the year.

4.0

WAVE TRANQUILITY WITHIN THE WORK HARBOUR

4.1 General The wave tranquility within the work harbour has been studied using the Boussinesq Wave (BW) module of MIKE 21 software. The results of the numerical model studies described above were used to determine the optimum location for the work harbour as well as the layout and design of the work harbour breakwaters. The wave climate and

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

tranquility in the work harbour has been studied by setting up a model of the proposed breakwaters. Waves from predominant directions are made to approach the harbor and the wave diffraction patterns within the sheltered area have been analyzed to assess the wave conditions in the berthing area. 4.2 Model Area description

The model area to study the wave tranquillity in the work harbour comprises of a 2.5 km x 2 km area of Kwada Bay including the breakwaters of the proposed work harbour. The short wave module, BW, can model most wave processes like reflection, diffraction, shoaling and refraction for regular, irregular with directional spreading, but does not include wave breaking. Hence the bathymetry was altered to increase the water depth close to the shore so that the steepness of the waves does not reach breaking limit. Wave energy reaching the shoreline is absorbed on the shore using "sponge" layers, which gradually removes the wave energy from the incoming waves. Partial refection from the work harbour breakwaters was also included in the computations by specifying the porosity of the proposed breakwater cross section. The grid spacing was chosen to be 10m and the time step as 0.5 seconds to ensure that the model equations remain stable during the entire simulation. 4.3 Incident wave conditions Wave measurements close to the site during the period 1988-1991 have shown that the wave height during the SW monsoon is less than 2.5m for over 85% of the measured wave spectra. Generally, long period waves penetrate deeper into sheltered regions due to wave diffraction, than short waves. The available wave data suggests that the maximum peak period of waves is 14-15s. Hence, irregular waves with a mean period of 12s, which corresponds to a peak period of 15-16s and a significant wave height of 2.5 m, conforming to the Pierson-Moscowitz spectrum were used in the simulations. These long period irregular waves were generated at both the southern and western boundaries of the model area and were allowed to propagate shoreward towards the location of the work harbour. As in the case of near shore wave simulations, wave approach directions corresponding to SSW, SW, WSW, W, were used in the BW simulations to study the tranquillity conditions in the work harbour for wave directions during various seasons. The simulations were performed for duration of 30 minutes, to ensure that the wave pattern has attained a reasonable quasi steady state so that statistical parameters like the significant wave height at grid points of interest can be computed. 4.4 Results

The wave crest pattern and the wave height coefficients, which is the ratio of significant wave height at any point to the incoming significant wave height, for waves from SSW, which is the most exposed wave direction for the work harbour, at the end of the 30 minute simulation are presented in Figures 4 and 5.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

Figure 4. Wave crest pattern for irregular waves Hs=2.5, Tz=12s, Dir=SSW The wave crest pattern for waves from SSW shows that the Arge Island affords protection only to the Arge channel and waves east of the island propagate up to the entrance to the Manzel Creek. However, the southern breakwater affords good protection within the work harbour as can be seen in the substantial reduction in the surface elevation inside the harbour. The wave height coefficient pattern shows that the significant wave heights within the work harbour are only 10% of the incident significant wave heights. It may be noted that long period swells with peak periods between 12-14s from the SSW occur predominantly during the NE monsoon, though the wave height is only of the order of 0.5m, thereby suggesting that the wave heights within the work harbour would be negligibly small. Surface elevations within the work harbour (grid point 200,180) for the various directions of wave approach, corresponding the incident wave elevations at the boundaries are presented in Figure 6. It can be seen that for the given incident wave conditions the surface elevations are around +/-10 cm for waves from the SSW and are around +/- 2 cm for waves from the WSW and W.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

Figure 5. Wave height coefficient for irregular waves Hs=2.5, Tz=12s, Dir=SSW 5.0 LOCATION OF THE WORK HARBOUR

The proposed work harbour is intended to act as a loading point for the transportation of material, which mainly comprises of rock from quarry to the construction site i.e. the breakwaters of the main harbour. As construction activity is not possible during the SW monsoon due to rough weather conditions, the work harbour also has to afford shelter during the SW monsoon, to the various floating craft used in the breakwater construction. In view of the above, major factors which are to be considered in the selection of a suitable location for the work harbour are: Protection from waves. Availability of sufficient water depths for operation of various craft. Good operational and navigational conditions. Tranquil conditions within the protected harbour for berthing vessels during rough weather conditions. Minimum impact on the environment. Proximity to the quarry site. Ease of construction.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

Figure 6.Water surface elevations within the work harbour for irregular waves at the boundary; Hs=2.5m Tz=12 s. The proposed location of the work harbour and the layout of the work harbour breakwaters along the beach in the northwestern portion of the bay are shown in Figure 7. This region is well protected from the most predominant wave direction during the SW monsoon, i.e. WSW. Even for severe waves with a 50 year return period the wave heights in the region never exceed 2.5m.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi

2005

Figure 7. Proposed location of work harbour and layout of breakwaters As the distance of the 5m contour from the shoreline at this location is less than 250m, it would result in a reduction in the length of the breakwaters and hence in construction time. Moreover, the proposed location is very close to the quarry, and connected to land which facilitates easier transportation of construction material. Short wave simulations using the BW module showed that wave heights within the work harbour were less than 5% of the incident wave height even during the South West Monsoon. Considering the above factors, the area along the beach in the northwestern portion of the bay is the most optimum location for the proposed work harbour.

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CIDC 8th Annual National Conference on Construction, CIDC, New Delhi 6.0 CONCLUSION

2005

The advanced modeling system of Mike-21 is a sophisticated tool for optimum selection of site for proposed Harbor. The orientation & alignment of breakwater is decided based on Offshore & near shore wave characteristics. Also the operational wave characteristics at various berth locations, turning circle, entrance channel are assessed before taking up the real construction. It is estimated that the port is tranquil for safe berthing of various floating crafts throughout the year. The wave height distribution at the various water depths along the breakwater extracted from model studies are taken as input for design of breakwater. The input wave height vs water depth at each breakwater cross sections adds an extra advantage for planning during the various phases of construction, also it helps in to assess the suitable season for safe construction of breakwater. The present case study gives a systematic procedure for planning a harbor with the help of numerical marine modeling system.

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