Abstract:
This paper illustrates the application of the new version of a nonlinear shallow water numerical model, AMAZON,
to study the mean wave overtopping discharge at a porous breakwater that protects the Portuguese harbor of Póvoa
de Varzim. The results are compared with two-dimensional physical model data collected at the National Civil
Engineering Laboratory, Portugal. The implications of using different porous flow parameters in the Forchheimer
equation for stationary turbulent flow within the porous layer of the breakwater are discussed. The maximum
velocity that the water can reach during the exchange between the free-flow and porous layers has been included as
an input to AMAZON and its impact on the overtopping results is analyzed. A suitable choice of the values of the
porous flow parameters and of the maximum velocity leads to a good agreement between the AMAZON results and
the data. The specified maximum velocity was found to be the parameter which mostly affects the obtained results.
