Instability of nonlinear standing waves in front of a vertical wall

The standing waves formed in front of a vertical breakwater in Gdansk North Port Harbour are examined. To simplify the wave-structure interaction problem, a laboratory experiment and mathematical model were designed. Standing waves in a limited space were generated under resonance conditions between a vertical wall and wave generator. Such slowly growing standing waves eventually become unstable and, consequently, create an impact impulse on the vertical wall. The dynamics of the vertical wall and hydrodynamics of the standing wave were measured and compared with a numerical model derived by variational calculus. The phenomenon of standing wave instability observed in nature was reproduced by laboratory experimentation and numerical simulation. The presented mechanism of breaking standing waves is more complicated in reality due to wave randomness and the multidirectional wave field. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.