Publications

Na sequência dos estragos causados pelo furacão Lorenzo no molhe principal do porto de Ponta Delgada, foi elaborado um projeto de reparação do mesmo, tendo havido necessidade derealização de ensaios em modelo físico tridimensional com o objetivo de avaliar a estabilidade da solução projetada.

Em 2 de outubro de 2019, o furacão Lorenzo atingiu as ilhas do Arquipélago dos Açores, provocando estragos nas infraestruturas portuárias, nomeadamente no molhe principal do porto de Ponta Delgada. No sentido de minorar este problema, foi elaborado um projeto de reparação do molhe (CONSULMAR, 2020), tendo nesse âmbito sido necessária a realização dos ensaios em modelo físico tridimensional com o objetivo de avaliar a estabilidade da solução projetada.Os ensaios foram realizados num tanque de ondas irregulares do LNEC à escala geométrica1:65 e contemplaram 6 séries de ensaios associados a 3 rumos de agitação marítima (WSW, S, SSW) e a dois níveis de maré (baixa-mar e preia-mar) associados a períodos de pico (Tp) entre 12 s e 20 s e alturas de onda significativa (Hs) variando entre 8 m e 15 m, Lemos et al. 2020.

A avaliação da estabilidade do manto resistente de quebra-mares de taludes requer, na maioria dos casos, a realização de ensaios em modelo físico. Entre os diferentes métodos de avaliação da evolução da estabilidade, destaca-se a medição do volume erodido do manto resistente por ação da agitação marítima. Este volume pode ser determinado a partir de levantamentos consecutivos da envolvente dos taludes. Melby[1] apresentou uma fórmula para previsão da evolução do dano em quebra-mares de taludes com base nas características da agitação neles incidente. No presente estudo pretendeu-se utilizar um programa de ensaiosem modelo físico bidimensional semelhante ao programa que conduziu à referida fórmula aplicado a um caso de estudo correspondente a uma secção do quebra-mar do porto de Peniche.Os ensaios realizados fazem parte do projeto BSafe4Sea que visa desenvolver, testar e comprovar o conceito de previsão do comportamento estrutural de quebra-mares de talude, que constitui a base de um sistema inovador de apoio à decisão. Os ensaios tiverem como objetivo analisar a resposta da estrutura a diferentes estados de agitação incidentes, cujos resultados são fundamentais para o desenvolvimento d e formulações empíricas de previsão da evolução do dano.

This paper studies the effects of an air bubble curtain on surface water waves. Water particle velocities and free surface elevations were measured simultaneously at two cross-shore sections downstream the air bubble curtain. Measurements were carried out for regular waves regarding different air bubble curtain configurations. Free surface elevations were measured using resistive gauges and the instantaneous velocities were acquired using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). The characteristics of the free surface elevation, velocity field and turbulence are analyzed and discussed. The free surface elevation was found to be constantly attenuated by the air bubble curtain. The phase-averaged velocity profiles also depict the effect of the air bubbles in the flow field by generating milder longitudinal velocities (u) and by increasing the transverse component of the velocity (w). The increase in the turbulence intensity and the different energy spectrum produced by the air bubble curtain is also analyzed. The experimental results indicate that the thickness of the air bubble curtain and the total air flow rate affects the wave field.

An experimental study was carried out to investigate seabed-pipeline interactions with regard to soil liquefaction. For a soil with a high proportion (30 to 60%) of fine sediment, four groups of tests were configured to reproduce soil liquefaction around pipelines for different initial pipe depths, pipe densities and wave conditions (wave height and period). The study focused on verifying the theoretically computed areas of soil failure by analyzing the sinking depths of the pipelines. The main findings are that a pipe with a submerged specific weight of less than half that of the soil will move up to the mudline; that the loss of soil loading capacity is more frequently evidenced in a fluid-like behavior of the soil than by an abrupt breaking of the soil matrix; and that the pipes which are totally buried will sink more than half-buried pipes. Moreover, wave action and the specific weight of the pipes seem to play more important roles in the expected behavior of the wave

In coastal areas, overtopping events and coastal floods, resulting from the occurrence of maritime storms, can cause severe damage to infrastructure, building and equipment, can be responsible for coastal morphology changes (coastal erosion), as well as put in damage human lives, animals or the ecosystem.

SAFEPORT safety system aims to daily reports to Sines harbour administration, potencial emergency situations regarding ships operation in port areas caused by extreme weather-oceanographic conditions, that may occur in the next three. It consists of a set of numerical models and a qualitative risk assessment and forecasting. It uses forecasts provided offshore of the area under study of sea agitation, wind and tide. The characterization of the response of the free and moored ships at a berth is performed using the numerical modelswhich deals with formulations in the frequency and time domain. The system issue alerts, through danger levels associated with risk levels of exceedance of recommended values for movements and forces imposed on ship mooring systems. SAFEPORT can be adapted to any port. So far, it has been developed and adapted to three terminals of the port of Sines, where three different ships were simulated. This paper presents the developments made to date of the safety system, in terms of its implementation and validation. The numerical models run every day, in real-time mode, in a computer cluster and the system provide forecast results for the next 72 hours. The results are disseminated on a web page and a mobile application in a variety of formats.

Early warning systems are an important tool for local authorities to detect emergency situations in advance and initiate the necessary safety measure. The To-SEAlert project has the aim of increasing the efficiency, robustness and reliability of the HIDRALERTA coastal hazards early warning system. This study shows a first intent to implement the SWASH numerical model to simulate wave overtopping for the Ericeira prototype. SWASH was implemented for one breakwater profile where overtopping discharge and associated risk levelsare estimated. It was compared to the current approach used in HIDRALERTA, the neuronal network NN_OVERTOPPING2. Finally, both approaches were compared with previously analysed video images of the site. The results showed that SWASH generally overestimates overtopping and is not in good agreement with the NN_OVERTOPPING2 or the video images. A possible reason might be the wave direction, which cannot be included in one-dimensional simulations in SWASH.

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Extending for more 900 km with diverse geomorphologies and land-use occupation, the Portuguese coastal zone is highly vulnerable to overtopping and flooding.

Nowadays, renewable energy is a topic widely discussed in scientific community. Specifically wave energy attracts attention because it has a high energy potential distributed throughout the planet. Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converter is one of the most studied devices that have promising perspectives to be installed commercially. This study aims investigating the influence of chamber sizes and turbine characteristics dimensions of an OWC device located at the southern Brazilian coast is carried out. Numerical simulations for incident waves with period T = 7 s and 10 s and height H = 1.5 m, by using the FLUENT® model, based on the finite volume method (VFM) are carried out. Efficiencies for different chamber sizes and Wells turbine characteristic relations (kt) in each incident wave are determined. The highest efficiencies were obtained by a chamber with 5 x 5 m and kt = 530 Pa.s/m³ in the case of an incident wave with T = 7s (52%), and 30 x 30 m and kt = 15 Pa.s/m³ at T = 10s (65%).

Port terminals downtimes lead to large economic losses and largely affect the port

This paper describes the physical model, experimental setup and tests performed to study the motions and forces of a ship moored to the pier A at the Leixões oil terminal, following the breakwater

HIDRALERTA is a forecast, early warning and risk assessment system for port and coastal areas that uses measurements and estimates of sea-waves and water levels to evaluate overtopping/flooding events. The calculation of the mean overtopping discharge over a maritime structure is performed through artificial neural network-based tools and/or empirical formulae. The system is developed in open source software, mainly using the Python language. This paper presents the application of HIDRALERTA system to reproduce the hurricane Lorenzo conditions and impacts at Lajes das Flores port on October 2nd 2019, the most affected port in Azores. This hurricane was regarded as the strongest storm to hit Azores in 20 years. The system predicted the expected results for the hurricane wave characteristics, as well as overtopping discharge volumes. Further validation still need to be improved with the collaboration of the local authorities and the use of historical data.

Numerical models are useful tools to predict the effects of storms in coastal areas. The objective of this work was to simulate the effects of storms in São Pedro de Moel beach by using XBeach. The nearshore sea state was obtained by propagating offshore conditions using the SWAN model. The XBeach model was divided into two setups to analyse overtopping events and coastal evolution. Sensibility tests, calibration, and validation, using information from different storms, were performed for the different setups. The results from the overtopping simulation were compared against results from an empirical formula. The comparison showed lower values obtained with the empirical formula. The coastal evolution run point out to the necessity of having better field data before and after storms to improve the model setting and accuracy.

The assessment of damage evolution in scale model tests of rubble-mound breakwaters can be achieved by comparing eroded depths and volumes between consecutive surveys. This paper focuses on damage evolution of a model of a rubble-mound breakwater and on the novelty of the non-intrusive survey methodologies such as laser scanning and Time of Flight (ToF) techniques, based on point clouds, enabling the extraction of profiles and the calculation of eroded depths and eroded volumes. The final objective of this work is to evaluate the applicability of the estimation the number of displaced armour units, using a non-dimensional damage parameter based on the calculated eroded volume.The paper will also describe the experiments conducted under the RODBreak, a project sponsored by the HYDRALAB+ Transnational Access Program, in which a stretch of a rubble-mound breakwater was built at the wave-current basin of the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) to assess the structure behavior. Four scan surveys were conducted using a Faro Focus 3D laser scan, as well as a ToF sensor. Those surveys were carried out before and after two test series, in order to evaluate the eroded volume and profile evolution.

Neste trabalho é efetuada a validação do protótipo To-SEAlert para o porto da Ericeira. Para a validação dos resultados do modelo SWAN foram utilizados os dados de duas boias situadas ao largo da Nazaré e para a validação das previsões do sistema de cálculo do grau de risco foram simuladas as depressões Elsa e Fabien (ocorridas em dezembro de 2019) e que foram responsáveis por fortes danos na cabeça do molhe do porto da Ericeira. Verificou-se uma boa concordância entre os dados das boias e os resultados do modelo SWAN, tendo no entanto o modelo reproduzido melhor a direção média e a altura significativa do que o período de pico. Relativamente aos valores de galgamento, os resultados obtidos na simulação das depressões Elsa e Fabien estiveram em concordância com os valores referidos na literatura como causadores de danos nas estruturas.

This work aims to determine the exploitable wave energy resource at six potential sites, located in the Azores, Madeira and Sines breakwater city harbours. For that purpose, the thirdgeneration wave model SWAN is used to estimate the sea-wave conditions over the last 40 years. Boundary conditions of the sea states and wind fields are provided by the climate reanalysis datasets (ERA5). Using those results as inputs to the SWAN model, the sea-states were propagated shoreward, in order to estimate and analyse the wave climate conditions in the regions of interest. By combining the average energy flux per unit-length of wave front and the probability of occurrence of each sea state, the average exploitable annual energy per unit length of wave crest can be computed. The variability of this energy flux is described, since it is of fundamental importance for the efficiency of the Wave Energy Converters (WEC).

Former investigations on wave run-up and overtopping of (impermeable and permeable) coastal structures aimed at quantifying the influence of oblique waves on mean overtopping discharge, water layer thickness and velocities by developing empirical formulas of a reduction factor for wave obliquity,

In 2017, the RODBreak experiment was conducted. The experiment aimed at characterizing wave run-up, overtopping and damage in rubble-mound breakwaters. The reason for these experiments was the huge impact that climate can have on maritime structures, particularly in rubble mound breakwaters. In fact, the forecast sea level rise associated with more frequent and severe storms will have consequences either on the increase of wave runup, wave overtopping or on damage on existent structures since they were not design for those extreme values. However, for those climate change scenarios, little is known about the actual failure probability of such structures.Within this framework, a stretch of a rubble-mound breakwater was built in a wave basin. Under extreme wave conditions, with different incident wave angles (from 40° to 90°), a total of 49 tests were performed. Each test had different testing parameters, such as significant wave height (Hs), peak period (Tp) and wave direction. Also, for each test, different types of measurements were considered. Incident sea waves were measured with 3 arrays of 6 acoustic wave probes each as well as with isolated acoustic wave probes and 5 Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADV

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