Water and Structures

One of the Joint Research Activities (JRA), in which Hydralab focuses on enhancing the capabilities of experimental facilities, methods and instruments, is about research on structures in wave flumes: HyRes (Hydraulic Response of Structures).

HyReS addresses two of the focus areas of HYDRALAB IV: ‘Water & Structures’ and ‘Water & Ice’. The response of coastal and offshore structures to wave loading is a significant issue in their design. At high latitudes, dynamic ice-structure interaction also causes high loads to act on fixed or floating moored offshore structures and harbour facilities. This JRA brings together leading experts in Europe to improve the quality of the service provided by hydraulic infrastructures for the testing of structures by improving techniques on wave generation and measurements on the interaction of water and structures or floating ice.
In many cases the most appropriate way to determine the impact of waves or an ice sheet on an offshore or coastal structure is to conduct an appropriately scaled physical model. Such models can reproduce nonlinear effects, such as wave breaking or the dynamic behaviour of the structure during ice failure far more accurately than even advanced numerical models. The types of problems addressed include forces on structures or their mooring lines, structural motion and low-frequency components, wave overtopping of a structure including the propagation of waves such as a tsunami, ice pile-up on structures in shallow waters and ice ride-up on sloped structures.