Proceedings of the Eighteenth (2008) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 6-11, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-70-8 (Set); ISBN 1-880653-68-0 (Set)

Hydraulic Performances of Non-Wave Overtopping Type Seawall Against Sea Level Rise
Due to Global Warming
Keisuke Murakami1), Yuji Kamikubo2) and Yasuto Kataoka3)
1) Dept. of Civil Engineering. Miyazaki University
Miyazaki, Japan
2) Dept. of Civil Eng., Yatsushiro National College of Technology
Kumamoto, Japan
3) Institute of Structural Engineering, Kobe Steel, LTD
Hyogo, Japan

ABSTRACT cross section of each seawall. These previous investigations revealed

Hydraulic performances of a non-wave overtopping type seawall were
investigated on a supposition of the sea level rise that might occur near
future. Two-dimensional hydraulic experiments were carried out to
evaluate several hydraulic characters, such as a checking effect of wave
overtopping, wave overtopping rate, and wave pressure distribution.
Some different water level conditions were set in the experiments to
reproduce the sea level rise in a supposed range of it. Furthermore, this
study proposes an appropriate countermeasure against the sea level rise,
and evaluates its efficiency on maintaining excellent hydraulic
performances of the non-wave overtopping type seawall.
KEY WORDS: Flaring Shaped Seawall; sea level rise; global
warming; wave overtopping; wave reflection; impulsive wave pressure.
that the existing coastal structures will lose their original hydraulic
performances and structural stability due to the sea level rise, and some
appropriate countermeasures have to be applied to maintain their
original efficiencies.
Authors had proposed a non-wave overtopping type seawall, which was
referred as the Flaring Shaped Seawall, with deeply arced cross section
(Murakami, et al. 1996, 2005, 2007). A series of previous studies
cleared that the seawall checks the wave overtopping effectively under
an extremely low crown height, because it overturns an incoming wave
motion offshore-ward on its curved section. Fig.1 shows one of the
typical cross section of the Flaring Shaped Seawall, which had been
firstly constructed at Kurahashi Island, Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan
(Takehana, et al, 2000).

INTRODUCTION

IPCC has reported that the global average temperature rise 0.74 degree
in Celsius in the last century due to the global warming. The report has
also shown some scenarios about the sea level rise according to this
increase tendency of global average temperature. The sea level rise will
bring many serious impacts on coastal zone such as an erosion of land,
increase of coastal disasters and deterioration of safety of coastal
structures. These serious impacts on coastal zone have been
summarized widely (i.e. Mimura, et al. 1990; Matsui, et al. 1992;
Hosomi, et al. 2005). And some countermeasures were investigated
from various political points of view.

On the other hands, influences of the sea level rise on coastal structures
were investigated from several technical viewpoints. Takayama(1990)
had investigated the sliding stability of breakwater against the sea level
rise. Based on a theory of reliability design, he pointed out that the sea Fig.1 Cross section of the Flaring Shaped Seawall constructed at
level rise affects the sliding stability of breakwater largely in the case Kurahashi Island, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
of shallow water depth in front of the breakwater.
In order to overturn incoming wave motion effectively on its curved
Inoue, et al.(1993, 1994) had also investigated an influence of the sea
section with minimum crown height, the design sea level (H.W.L) of
level rise on a change of the wave overtopping character. Through their
the Flaring Shaped Seawall is set at the same level of the deepest
experiments, it was pointed out that the influence of the sea level rise
location on its curved section as shown in Fig.1. In general, the
on the change of the wave overtopping character closely relates to the

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checking effect of the wave overtopping closely relates to the crown
height of the seawall. If the crown height of the seawall is decreased
relatively due to the sea level rise, its performance to check the wave
overtopping might be reduced in the future. In this case, an appropriate
countermeasure will have to be applied to maintain its original
checking effect of wave overtopping.
In this study, influences of the sea level rise on hydraulic characters of
the Flaring Shaped Seawall, such as a checking effect of wave
overtopping, wave overtopping rate, wave reflection rate, and wave
pressure distributions, are investigated through hydraulic experiments.
Furthermore, an appropriate countermeasure against the sea level rise is
proposed. The efficiency of the proposed measures on maintaining
excellent hydraulic performances of the Flaring Shaped Seawall is
evaluated.
EXPERIMENTAL SET UP AND CONDITIONS
Experimental Set Up
Fig.2 shows a schematic of hydraulic experimental model used in this
study. The experiments were carried out with using a two-dimensional
wave tank of 15m in length, 0.6m in height and 0.4m in width. The
model scale was assumed 1/30 in this study. The Flaring Shaped
Seawall was set on a mound that was fixed on a sea bottom with 1/20
slope. The model of the seawall, the mound structure and the sea
bottom slope were impermeable. The height of the seawall, B, was
14cm, and the depth of its curved section, D, was set as B/D=2. This is
an optimized ratio proposed by Kamikubo, et al.(2000). The mound
height was hM=5cm.
Sea Level Raise
Wave Overtopping Design Sea Level 1.5cm@4 step
D interval from the critical wave height. A volume of water over the
Wave
(hc)B
B
d The wave pressure was measured at different locations on the seawall
h face. The pressure on the seawall face was obtained for the wave with
hM h0
Pressure Gauge 1/20
Fig.2 Schematic of hydraulic experimental model
In this study, a standard mean water level shown as a solid line in Fig.2
was set at the same level of the deepest location on the curved section.
This mean water level is coincide with an original deign sea level as
shown in Fig.1. In this condition, the offshore water depth, h0, was
40cm. IPCC has estimated that the mean sea level rises in the range
from 8cm to 88cm until 2100. In order to reproduce this sea level rise,
the experiments were conducted under four different water levels raised
from the standard water level. The interval of each water level shown
as broken lines in Fig.2 was 1.5cm. The model scale is assumed 1/30,
and 1.5cm corresponds to 45cm sea level rise.
Experimental Condition and Method of Measurement
The experimental conditions related to the sea level rise are shown in
Table.1. In Table.1, ∆h means an increment of the sea level rise. hc’
also means a crown height of the Flaring Shaped Seawall, and it
changes relatively with sea level rise. For latter discussions, the crown
height above the standard water level is denoted as hc. The ratio of the
crown height between standard water level condition and other water
level ones is expressed as hc’/hc. The water depth at the foot of the
mound is also expressed as h. The water depth in front of the seawall
on the mound was d=6.5cm on the standard water level condition.
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Table.1 Experimental conditions related to the sea level rise
Sea level rise Crown height of Water Depth in front Crown height
the Seawall of the mound ratio
∆h (cm) hc ' (cm) h (cm) hc '/hc
0.0 7.5 11.5 1.0
1.5 6.0 13.0 0.8
3.0 4.5 14.5 0.6
4.5 3.0 16.0 0.4
6.0 1.5 17.5 0.2
The experiments were carried out on each water level shown in Table.1.
At first, we measured a critical wave height, Hc, which was defined as
the maximum wave height on which no wave overtopping occurs at all.
Regular waves with different incident wave period were generated in
the wave tank. The critical wave height was specified by judging the
occurrence of wave overtopping visually at the tip on the seawall crown.
The critical wave height was obtained in a wide range of the incident
wave period. The wave period, T, was changed from 1.0 to 2.0 second
at an intervals of 0.2 second.
The wave reflection rate was measured for the wave with critical wave
height. Two wave gauges with 0.35m spacing were installed in the
wave tank about 4m offshore from the seawall. The water surface
motions were measured with those two gauges, and measured data were
recorded in PC. The profiles of each water surface motion were
analyzed by FFT, and the wave reflection rates were calculated with
using those analyzed data.
The wave overtopping rates were also measured with increasing the
incident wave height. The wave height was increased about 1cm
seawall for some successive waves was measured with using a catch
basin attached behind the seawall.
critical wave height. Five pressure gauges with 10mm diameter were
attached on the curved section of the seawall as shown in Fig.2. The
output signals from each gauge were recorded simultaneously in PC
with 500Hz sampling frequency. The maximum wave pressures at each
location were obtained by averaging some peak values in their wave
pressure profiles.
CHANGE OF HYDRAULIC CHARACTERS UNDER THE
SEA LEVEL RISE
Characteristics of Critical Wave Height
The Flaring Shaped Seawall checks the wave overtopping under an
extremely low crown height. This checking effect closely relates to the
space of the curved section above the mean sea level.
Fig.3 shows the relative critical wave height, Hc/hc, obtained under the
different water levels. Each symbol in this figure means a ratio of the
crown height defined as hc’/hc. In lateral axis, L0 means an offshore
wavelength of each incident wave period. In the case of the standard
water level, hc’/hc=1.0, the seawall checks the wave overtopping
effectively with low crown height in the wide range of the incident
wavelength. On the other hand, the sea level rise reduces the relative
critical wave height gradually. On each ratio of the crown height,
hc’/hc, the relative critical wave height shows increasing tendencies
according to the increase of relative water depth, 2πh/L0, though this
increasing character becomes obscure with sea level rise.

Fig.3 Critical wave height of the Flaring Shaped Seawall under
the sea level rise
Fig.4 Comparison of the measured critical wave height with
estimated one from Eq.1
Fig.5 Reduced ratio of critical wave height caused by the sea
level rise
The sea level rise reduces the critical wave height, because the space of
the curved section above the mean water level becomes relatively
smaller. In addition to this, the incident wave period also affects the
critical wave height. Based on a dimensional analysis, a following
equation was derived in order to estimate the critical wave height under
the sea level rise.
708
−0.88 0.95
HC ⎛ gT 2 ⎞ ⎛ hc ⎞ (1)
= 7.72 ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
Lh ⎝ Lh ⎠ ⎝ Lh ⎠
in which Lh means a wavelength at the foot of the mound and g means
a gravity acceleration.
Fig.4 shows a comparison of the estimated critical wave height with
measured one. The correlation coefficient was 0.94, and a good
agreement can be confirmed.
Fig.5 shows the reduced rate of the critical wave height under the sea
level rise. In vertical axis, (Hc)B means a critical wave height on the
standard water level. The sea level rise lowers the crown height of the
seawall relatively, and it causes the decrease of the critical wave height.
From this figure, the critical wave height is reduced 30%-40% when
the crown height is relatively reduced 20% due to the sea level rise.
Also, when the crown height is relatively reduced 40%, the critical
wave height is reduced 50%-60%
Changes of Wave Reflection, Wave overtopping and Wave
Pressure Distributions under Sea Level Rise
Characteristics of the wave reflection on the Flaring Shaped Seawall
might also be altered due to the sea level rise. Fig.6 shows the changes
of the wave reflection coefficient according to the sea level rise. On the
standard water level condition, hc’/hc=1.0, the standing wave motion
with a weak wave overturning can be observed in front of the seawall.
In this case, the wave reflection coefficient takes less than 0.6. The
wave overturning on the curved section becomes remarkable in shorter
wave period, and the reflection coefficient tends to decrease due to
turbulence loss.
Fig.6 Changes of wave reflection character due to the sea level
rise
In accordance with the sea level rise, quasi-standing wave motions
were formed in the wide range of the incident wave period, because the
critical wave height becomes lower. On these conditions, the wave
reflection coefficient shows higher values and period dependence
becomes obscure.
Fig.7, Fig.8 and Fig.9 show characteristics of wave overtopping rate on
the Flaring Shaped Seawall, where hc’/hc=1.0, 0.8 and 0.6, respectively.
In vertical axis, q means a volume of the overtopped water in unit
width, and H0 means an incident wave height. The rates are plotted
against wave steepness at the foot of the mound. In the case of
hc’/hc=1.0, the wave maker used in this experiment can not generate
waves higher than the critical wave height on T=1.0sec. and 1.2sec.,
 Fig.7 Characteristics of wave overtopping rate on h’c/hc=1.0
Fig.9 Characteristics of wave overtopping rate on h’c/hc=0.6
and no data are plotted in Fig.7 in those cases.
In Fig.7, the wave overtopping rates on each incident wave period show
increasing tendency up to a certain wave height. This tendency turns
decreasing one with further increase of the incident wave height. With
wave height increase, the wave breaking becomes remarkable on
Fig.10 Changes of wave pressure distributions under the sea level rise
709
Fig.8 Characteristics of wave overtopping rate on h’c/hc=0.8
offshore side of the seawall. The wave height dissipation due to wave
breaking causes the reduction of wave overtopping.
Both in Fig.8 and Fig.9, the wave overtopping rates on each incident
wave period also show increasing tendency with increase of the
incident wave height. In comparison with these increasing tendencies in
Fig.7, Fig.8 and Fig.9, the rate of increase becomes gradually larger
with increase of the sea level rise. This character can be remarkably
seen in longer period waves such as T=2.0 and 1.8 second.
In the case of longer period waves, wave motion overturned on the
curved section was relatively smaller than that in the case of shorter
period waves. In addition to this typical wave motion, wave height
dissipation due to wave breaking also becomes smaller in the case of
longer period waves. These mean that the effect of the sea level rise on
the increase of the wave overtopping remarkably appears in longer
period waves.
On the curved section of the Flaring Shaped Seawall, an impulsive
wave pressure occasionally occurs when a wave hit the seawall with
steep wave profile (Murakami, et al. 2007). This large wave pressure
tends to occur between still water level and seawall crest. The value of
this impulsive pressure varies depending on the incident wave height as
well as the wave period.
Fig.10 shows the distributions of the maximum wave pressures on the
seawall face. The maximum wave pressures at each location were
obtained by averaging some peak values in their wave pressure profiles
when the wave with critical wave height hits the seawall. The wave
pressures were normalized by the incident wave height, Hc. In vertical
axis, z means a vertical coordinate taken upward from the mean water
level of the standard condition.
Case-A, when the water level was risen 3.0cm from the standard water
level. The results of the numerical simulation based on VOF method
were also plotted in order to check the agreement with experimental
results (CDIT, 2001). The agreements between numerical results and
experimental ones were good. The numerical simulation is going to be
applied further investigations in future.

In the case of hc’/hc=1.0, the large wave pressures were observed near
the standard water level. In the case of hc’/hc=0.8, and 0.6, on the other
hand, the pressures on the seawall show quite small values. The critical
wave height on each wave period in hc’/hc=0.8 and 0.6 was smaller
than that in hc’/hc=1.0. The quasi-standing wave motions were formed
in those wave conditions, and their distribution profiles approach to a
similar one seen under a standing wave motion.

IMPROVEMENT OF SEAWALL CROSS SECTION TO

MAINTAIN HYDRAULIC EFFICIENCIES OF FLARING
SHAPED SEAWALL

Improvement of The Seawall Cross Section

The Flaring Shaped Seawall originally has an excellent advantage in
checking wave overtopping with fairly low crown height. As shown in Fig.12 Reduced ratio of the critical wave height in Case-A
Fig.3, on the other hand, the sea level rise deteriorates this excellent (∆h=3.0cm)
advantage. In order to maintain its original efficiency supposed on its
design stage, an appropriate countermeasure should be considered
against the sea level rise. In this section, two types of countermeasure
are considered, and their performances are evaluated.

Fig.11 Schematics of countermeasures on the Flaring Shaped

Seawall
Fig.11 shows the countermeasures considered in this study. In Case-A,
the crest of the Flaring Shaped Seawall was raised with a vertical wall
set on the seawall. The height of the wall in Case-A is expressed as
∆CV. This type of countermeasure is often seen in several conventional
structures to increase their crown height. In Case-B, on the other hand,
an overhang section was added on the seawall crown. The length of the
overhang section and its thickness are expressed as ∆Ch and d,
respectively. This section is expected to overturn wave motions
effectively without any wave run-up in the same manner as the original
curved section of the Flaring Shaped Seawall.
In experiments, two cases of vertical wall were tested in Case-A, where
∆Cv=1.5cm and 3cm, respectively. Also in case-B, two cases of
overhang section were tested, where ∆Ch=1.5cm and 3cm. The
thickness of the overhang section was b=1.5cm in each case. The water
level was raised ∆h=1.5cm and 3.0cm from the standard water level.
The critical wave height, Hc, was measured in Case-A and Case-B on
both water level conditions. The wave period, T, was changed from 1.0
to 2.0 second at an intervals of 0.2 second.
Fig.12 shows the reduced ratio, Hc/(Hc)B, of the critical wave height in
Fig.13 Reduced ratio of the critical wave height in Case-A
(∆h=1.5cm)
In Fig.12, the sea level rise reduces the critical wave height of the
Flaring Shaped Seawall less than 50% under the condition of no
countermeasure, ∆Cv/∆h=0.0. The countermeasure set on the seawall
slightly improves the efficiency of the checking effect of wave
overtopping as shown in ∆Cv/∆h=0.5 and 1.0. However, the critical
wave height was recovered only 60%-70% of the original wave height,
(Hc)B, even in the case where the crown height of the seawall was
elevated the same as an increment of the sea level rise, ∆Cv/∆h=1.0.
Fig.13 also shows the reduced ratio of the critical wave height, when
the water level was risen 1.5cm from standard water level. The
increment of the sea level rise was a half of that in Fig.12, and the
reduced ratio becomes slightly larger. But the critical wave height was
recovers 80% to 90% at most even in the case where the crown height
of the seawall was elevated twice of the sea level change, ∆Cv/∆h=2.0.
Fig.14 shows the effect of the vertical wall on recovering the critical
wave height against the sea level rise. The vertical axis means reduced
ratio of the critical wave height, and lateral axis means a relative height
of the vertical wall against the sea level rise. The result of the linear

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 Fig.14 Effect of the elevated crown height on the reduced ratio
regression between Hc/(Hc)B and ∆Cv/∆h is also shown in this figure.
The correlation coefficient of this linear regression is 0.78. From this
linear relation, it is estimated that ∆Cv/∆h is required to be 3.1 to
satisfy Hc/(Hc)B=1. This means that the crown of the Flaring Shaped
Seawall must be elevated more than three times of the increment of the
sea level rise in order to maintain its original performance on checking
wave overtopping.
The Flaring Shapes Seawall shows an excellent checking effect of the
wave overtopping with its low crown height, because it effectively
overturns incoming wave motions offshore-ward on its curved face. On
the other hand, the vertical wall set on the seawall hardly overturns
incoming wave motions. In order to maintain the hydraulic efficiency
of the Flaring Shaped Seawall, an overhang section as shown in Case-B
was employed on the seawall crown as an alternative countermeasure.
Fig.15 shows the reduced ratio of the critical wave height in Case-B,
when the water level was risen 1.5cm from the standard water level.
The results in Case-A under the same experimental conditions are also
plotted as a reference. The reduced ratio of the critical wave height in
Case-B becomes larger than that in Case-A along the whole range of
incident wave period. This means that the overhang section checks the
wave run-up effectively in front of the seawall. Especially, the reduced
ratio under ∆Ch/∆h=1 in Case-B is higher than that under ∆Cv/∆h=2 in
Case-A. Furthermore, the original performance on checking wave
overtopping is almost recovered even in the case of ∆Ch/∆h=1. From
these results, the overhang section is considered one of the profitable
countermeasure against the sea level rise to maintain an excellent
checking effect of wave overtopping with fairly low crest elevation.
CONCLUSIONS
Influences of the sea level rise on hydraulic characters of the Flaring
Shaped Seawall were investigated through hydraulic experiments. The
experiments were conducted on the different water level conditions
changed in a supposed range of the sea level rise. Furthermore, an
appropriate countermeasure against the sea level rise was proposed in
order to maintain an excellent checking effect of the wave overtopping
on the seawall. The efficiency of the proposed measure was also
evaluated. The results are obtained as follows;
(1) The sea level rise largely deteriorates an excellent hydraulic
performance of the Flaring Shaped Seawall, such as a checking
effect of the wave overtopping with low crown height. The sea
level rise reduces the space of the curved section on the seawall
above the mean water level, and it also lessens the function of the
wave overturning on it. An empirical formula that estimates the
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Fig.15 Reduced ratio of the critical wave height in Case-B
(∆h=1.5cm)
critical wave height under the sea level rise was derived based on a
dimensional analysis.
(2) The critical wave height of the Flaring Shaped Seawall might be
reduced 30%-40% when the crown height is relatively reduced
20% due to the sea level rise. Furthermore, the wave height might
be also reduced 50%-60% when the crown height is relatively
reduced 40%.
(3) The wave-overtopping rate becomes gradually larger with increase
of the sea level. This increasing character can be obviously seen in
longer period waves. The experimental results showed that that the
effect of the sea level rise on the increase of the wave overtopping
remarkably appears in longer period waves.
(4) The overhang section set on the seawall crown as a countermeasure
against the sea level rise shows excellent performance in checking
wave overtopping with keeping a low crown height of the seawall.
The overhang section almost recovers the original performance on
checking wave overtopping even in the case of ∆Ch/∆h=1.
(5) On the other hand, the countermeasure that elevates the seawall
crown vertically is not suitable for the Flaring Shaped Seawall. In
order to recover the original performance on checking wave
overtopping, the crown of the Flaring Shaped Seawall must be
elevated more than three times of the sea level rise.
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