EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF OVERTOPPING PERFORMANCE FOR THE CASES OF VERY STEEP SLOPES AND VERTICAL WALLS WITH VERY SMALL FREEBOARDS

This article describes the investigation of average wave overtopping performance for sloping coastal structures characterised by very steep slopes (typically cot α < 0.5) and very small freeboards. Based on experimental tests, performed in the large wave flume of Ghent University, the influence of the relevant hydraulic and geometrical parameters on overtopping is examined. Test set-up and test parameters are presented and discussed in detail in this paper. Furthermore, the established dataset, called UG13 dataset, is compared to prediction formulae from existing literature, including the limiting cases of zero freeboard and vertical wall.