HYDRAULIC ANALYSIS OF WAVE PENETRATION INTO A

MARINA HARBOR WITH VERTICAL-WALL BREAKWATERS

DUE TO A HISTORICAL TYPHOON

Eric C. Cruz

Water Resources and Coastal Engineering Group, Institute of Civil Engineering

University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101; Email: eccruz@upd.edu.ph

Abstract: A vertical-wall breakwater is a preferred coastal protection structure in severe wave environments with
water depths exceeding about 8 meters. One such type is a caisson breakwater which was used in the preliminary engineering
of a marina that will be exposed to strong typhoons. To assess the effectiveness of the coastal protection afforded by the
breakwater for the marina infrastructures against storm waves, a hydraulic analysis of wave penetration into the marina was
undertaken using a numerical model of wave overtopping of the caissons. The wave overtopping model was coupled into a
storm surge numerical model based on the nonlinear shallow water equations. A local mesh representing the plan layout of
the caisson breakwater and the high resolution bathymetric data was incorporated into the unstructured finite element regional
model to determine the wave overtopping rate and the wave field behind the structure into the marina interior. Wave
overtopping was simulated under typhoon Haiyan 2013, the critical storm loading for the breakwater. The paper introduces
numerical modeling of wave overtopping to quantify the wave protection provided by caisson breakwaters in the preliminary
engineering of enclosed marinas that are traversed by typhoons.

Key words: wave overtopping, storm surge, caisson breakwater, marina, engineering
conditions in 2011 (Cruz and Santos, 2015), but these
1. INTRODUCTION typhoons are now known to be weaker than Haiyan 2013.
Due to the crucial role of storm tide levels and wave
Most breakwaters used for coastal protection in the
conditions, the design bases have been revised to include
Philippines are designed as emergent rubble-mound
these more critical hazard loadings of typhoon Haiyan.
breakwaters mainly because of the relative simplicity of its
Generally these stronger typhoons lead to bigger breakwater
engineering design, and of the use of easily obtainable rocks
proportions. Under the present state of knowledge in
to form the armor layer, the wave-protection component of
breakwater engineering, it is not possible to design a caisson
the structure. However, the construction cost of a mound
breakwater that would provide 100% protection against
breakwater rapidly increases with water depth. Due to the
storm waves to a marina that lies along the path of the
increasing severity of typhoons, breakwaters are recently
strongest typhoons. As a result, the design condition has
being designed to be built in depths exceeding 8 m. In these
been modified from a non-overtopping to an overtopping
depths, a caisson-type breakwater is preferred over the rock
caisson breakwater.
mound type due to the prohibitive volume of large armor
rocks that the latter type requires. Moreover, for these severe
wave environments, heavy rocks are required for the armor
layer which may not be available. In this case, the caisson
type is an attractive option since the caisson units can be
fabricated off-site under largely controlled conditions, and
then transported to the final position by barges or other
suitable means.

In one land development project in the Philippines, a caisson

breakwater was utilized as wave protection structure of a
contemplated marina that will be exposed to typhoon
hazards along a Philippine sea that is tracked by tropical
cyclones yearly. In recent years, this sea was adversely
affected by severe typhoons, one of which was Typhoon
Haiyan 2013 (local name: Yolanda). The initial hydraulic
analyses and preliminary layout of the marina (Figure 1)
were carried out based on the historically critical typhoon Figure 1 Nearshore bathymetry and layout of breakwater

PICE 45th National Convention and Technical Conference, 2019 Oct 28-30, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City 1
This paper discusses the hydraulic analyses that were
undertaken to determine the design conditions for the marina
breakwater considering the potentially critical typhoons that
tracked the study area. The paper focuses on the numerical
modeling of the wave overtopping that occurs on the
preliminary cross-section, in order to determine the
magnitudes of the wave heights that would propagate into
the marina interior. In this manner, an definitive evaluation
of the effectiveness of the caisson breakwater, while
overtopped, in mitigating the wave energy that reach the
protected interior.

2. VERTICAL-WALL BREAKWATER

Figure 3. Caisson breakwater preliminary cross-section

Caisson breakwaters have been constructed extensively in
more advanced countries and along coastlines that are
exposed to severe wave environments (Xie, 1981; Owen,
1982; Takahashi et al, 1983; Takahashi and Shimosako, 1990;
The simplest caisson breakwater consists of reinforced-
Van der Meer and Angremond, 1990). An exhaustive
concrete shells with vertical faces, but recent designs involve
historical accounting and technical research development
sloping faces with broad crests to increase its dynamic
was published by Takahashi (2002) covering many caisson
stability against storm waves and also help decrease the
types including more recent designs. In the Philippines,
structure’s reflectivity (Figure 2). However, the overtopping
Guzman (2013) studied the applicability of caisson
risk of the sloping-top caisson is higher than the
breakwaters in terms of tide and wave environments, as well
conventional type. Figure 3 shows a third cross-section
as relative construction costs compared to mound
geometry which is similar to the sloping-top caisson except
breakwaters.
that the sloping side is substantially higher than the design
water level and that the crest is provided with a trapezoidal
parapet structure which is designed as an integral part of the
caisson unit. This preliminary cross-section has been shown
to be externally stable under typhoon conditions at the
project site. Figure 4 shows a pair of a conventional caisson
units of about 40 m height at an onshore casting yard in
Japan that are ready for transfer and positioning to the final
location.

Figure 4. Caisson units at onshore casting yard (source: Toa

Construction Corporation)

Figure 2. Caisson breakwater cross-sections: Conventional

with vertical front (top), “Sloping-top” caisson (bottom)
(source: Coastal Engineering Manual, 2005)

PICE 45th National Convention and Technical Conference, 2019 Oct 28-30, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City 2
3. NUMERICAL MODELING OF STORM SURGE characteristics) for the local model was extracted from the
AND WAVES regional model and inputted to the boundaries using various
downscaling techniques (Flather, 1976).
Numerical modeling of the hydrodynamics and wave
overtopping of the caisson breakwater was carried out using
a coupled hydrodynamic-spectral wave model wherein the
Typhoon-
effects of the long-period water surface elevation and sea
tracked Sea
currents’ distribution on the wave heights are taken into
account. Consequently, the radiation stresses generated by
wave energy gradients and wave breaking are considered in Study Area
the hydrodynamics. However, this coupling results in
substantially long computation time. To achieve reasonable
computational time, the simulation was separated into a
regional and a local simulation, details of which are Breakwater

discussed below: location

A. Regional Hydrodynamic Model Tide Station

4,000 m
Figure 5 shows the extent and bathymetry of the regional
model, and Figure 6 the portion of this domain where wave
boundaries are prescribed. The boundary conditions for the
regional model were extracted from available global Figure 6. Regional domain for coupled hydrodynamic and
constituent model (Yongcun et al, 2010) while wave spectral wave modeling
boundaries were initially set to zero. This is found
acceptable considering that the project site is more than C. Model Calibration
300km from the boundaries and the input wind field will
generate the appropriate nearshore wave condition on the
site. R2 = 0.9486

Figure 5. Regional domain for coupled hydrodynamic and

spectral wave modeling

B. Local Mesh
Figure 7. Comparison of simulated tide levels with
Figure 1 shows the spatial extent of the local model
NAMRIA tide levels at Tide Station: scatter plot on perfect-
simulation conducted for the study. The bathymetry is based
agreement line (top), and time series overlay (bottom)
on high-resolution depth soundings that are able to manifest
the fine features of the nearshore zone which crucially affect
the local wave transformation. The boundary conditions The hydrodynamic model was verified using tide data from
(such as water level, current distribution and wave the nearest tide station (NAMRIA, 2016) to the project site,

PICE 45th National Convention and Technical Conference, 2019 Oct 28-30, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City 3
which is located at the nearest government Tide Station
along about 4 km south of the study area, as shown in Figure
6. Data from these stations were compared to the simulated
tidal levels for the same time period at the said locations
using statistical methods. Results of the analysis are shown
in Figure 7. By looking at the plots, it is observed that there
is minimal bias for the tide stations which is further Haiyan
supported by a relatively high coefficient of determination Storm Tide Level
(R2), 0.9486. Given this, it is reasonable to conclude that the
tide levels are well represented by the model.

4. HYDRAULIC ANALYSIS OF WAVE

OVERTOPPING OVER THE CAISSONS

To integrate the numerical modelling of wave overtopping to

the spectral wave model, the study utilized the model’s built-
in function to model wave transmission using the Goda’s
formula (1967, 1969) which requires two parameters (α and
β) depending on the shape of the breakwater:
𝐾𝑡,𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝐾𝑡 < 𝐾𝑡.𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑓
1 𝜋 𝐻𝑖 +𝛽 𝑓
𝐾𝑡 = (1 − sin ( )) 𝐾𝑡,𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≤ ≤ 𝐾𝑡,𝑚𝑎𝑥 (1)
2 2 𝛼 𝐻𝑖

{ 𝐾𝑡,𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝐾𝑡 < 𝐾𝑡.𝑚𝑎𝑥

where Kt is the coefficient of transmission, Kt,max and Kt,min

are the maximum and minimum coefficient of transmission Figure 8. Comparison of proposed breakwater (top) and type
set as the region of applicability of the derived equation, f is 1 breakwater by Takahashi (bottom)
the freeboard defined as the difference between the caisson
breakwater’s crest to the storm tide elevation, Hi is the 0.4
Ct/Kt : Transmission Coefficient

incident wave height, and α and β are the fitting parameters. 0.35
Type 1, Takahashi (1996)
Fitted Goda's Equation
0.3
To determine the parameters, the Goda formula was fitted to α = 2.750
the results of the experimental study conducted by Takahashi 0.25 β = 0.346
and Hasoyamada (1994) for wave transmission through 0.2
different sloping top caisson breakwater designs. The 0.15
condition of the proposed caisson breakwater during the 0.1
design typhoon Haiyan is equivalent to the type 1 structure 0.05
as presented in Figure 8. Figure 9 shows the curve fit of 0
Goda’s formula to results of Takahashi’s experiment for 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Type 1 breakwater. The resulting wave overtopping function Rc/Hi
is:
Figure 9. Transmission function of caisson breakwater
0.025 𝐾𝑡 < 0.025
𝑓
1 𝜋 𝐻𝑖 +0.346 𝑓 5. STORM WAVE PENETRATION DUE TO
𝐾𝑡 = (1 − sin ( )) 0.025 ≤ ≤ 0.385 (2)
2 2 2.75 𝐻𝑖 TYPHOON YOLANDA 2013
{ 0.8 𝐾𝑡 < 0.385
Two simulation cases were modeled to evaluate the effects
of modeling the transmission coefficient on the resulting
where Kt,max and Kt,min were determined to be equal to 0.385 incident and transmitted wave heights in front of the caisson
and 0.025 respectively, and α and β equal to 2.75 and 0.346 breakwater. The first case models the caisson breakwater
respectively. as an infinite vertical wall with perfect reflection while the
second case allows wave transmission based on the
It is clear that the wave transmission function Kt effectively preceding methodology. Figure 10 and Figure 11
accounts for the breakwater vertical geometry and the respectively show the simulated significant wave heights HS
transient wave conditions in front of the structure. and the spectral maximum Hmax . The significant wave
height is normally used in the caisson stability analysis, and
Hmax in the proportioning of the cross-section of rigid
structures such as caissons. The lower plots are for the first

PICE 45th National Convention and Technical Conference, 2019 Oct 28-30, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City 4
case (no overtopping), the lower one for the second case (i.e.
with wave transmission). Evidently, there is a significant
decrease in the incident wave heights (i.e. in front of the
marina breakwater) and a corresponding increase in the
wave heights inside the marina if wave transmission is
included in the simulation.
Figure 10. Significant wave heights at peak STL of Haiyan
for caisson breakwater modeled with perfect reflection (top),
and modeled with transmission due to overtopping (bottom)
Figure 11. Maximum wave heights at peak STL of Haiyan
for caisson breakwater modeled with perfect reflection (top),
and modeled with transmission due to overtopping (bottom)
PICE 45th National Convention and Technical Conference, 2019 Oct 28-30, SMX Convention Center, Pasay City
With regards to Hmax, Figure 11 reveals that the values of this
wave height is considerably increased in the marina
interior relative to Case-1 values. In particularly, the relative
increase due to wave overtopping is high immediately
behind the caisson but deceases its relative value close to the
shore. This implies that marina facilities and appurtenances
should be designed for a substantially bigger wave height
when wave overtopping occurs over the caissons.
CONCLUSIONS
The study presented the methodology and modeling
techniques introduced into a coupled hydrodynamics-
spectral wave model to incorporate the wave energy
transmission due to wave overtopping of a caisson
breakwater. The method essentially accounts for the
breakwater vertical geometry and transient wave conditions
in front of the breakwater as the hydrodynamics and spectral
wave transformation occur.
The wave overtopping numerical model was applied to the
project coast of a contemplated breakwater for a marina
along a storm-tracked Philippine sea under the design
historical storm, typhoon Haiyan 2013. The results indicate
that, when wave overtopping is incorporated into the wave
transformation model, significant increases of wave
heights in the marina’s interior are observed relative to those
under the fully reflecting non-overtopping caisson case,
particularly immediately behind the breakwater. This wave
height increase in the marina interior is accompanied by
some decrease in wave heights along the sea side of the
breakwater. The results have important implications to the
design criteria for the safety of the pedestrians, structures
and parked vessels inside the marina.
Further work is needed to validate the values of simulated
transmitted wave heights. On a positive note, however, the
numerical modeling of wave overtopping on caisson
breakwaters is shown to be possible and qualitatively
verified for the project
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge Engrs. Jose Carlo Eric
Santos and Laurenz Luigi Cruz of AMH Philippines, Inc. for
allowing the use of project data and for this paper, and
facilitating the numerical analyses.
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