Richard Marcer

Solitary wave breaking on sloping beaches: 2-D two phase flow numerical simulation by SL-VOF method

Abstract This paper describes the development of a computational method for simulating breaking and post-breaking of solitary waves over sloping bottoms. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved in air and water with respect to the real density ratio between the two fluids using a pseudo-compressibility method. The interface tracking is achieved by a new method, called Segment Lagrangian-Volume Of Fluid (SL-VOF), using the well known concepts of VOF, Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) and adding Lagrangian advection of the segments representing the interface. The verification of this method is made through various simple test cases. Results concerning wave shoaling are compared with those of Boundary Integral Element Method (BIEM) simulations, that are known to be very accurate up to breaking. The SL-VOF method is able to simulate the flow beyond the point at which the interface impacts on itself. Simulations of the breaking stage are compared with experiments. In both cases a very good agreement is observed.