Hydrodynamic conditions in front of a vertical wall with an overhanging horizontal cantilever slab

Transforming wave heights from offshore to the shoreline is the first step of any coastal engineering work. Wave breaking is analyzed to understand hydrodynamic conditions. For vertical breakwaters and sea walls, wave reflection is an important process that affects the determination of the wave height. Many of the design formulas presented in the literature depend on empirical studies based on the structures tested. In this study, the hydrodynamic conditions in front of a vertical wall with an overhanging horizontal cantilever slab with a foreshore slope of 1/20 are determined experimentally under regular wave conditions to assess the applicability of the formulas of Goda (2000) for predicting the nearshore wave height and breaker index equation (Goda, 2010). The selection of wave measurements used to determine the design wave height, the reflection coefficients, and wave breaking is also analyzed, and the reflection equations are derived from the dataset covering different breaker types. Small-scale tests show that the incident wave height is a good representative of the design wave height and that the values predicted by Goda are in good agreement with actual measurements. However, the predicted H_max values are overestimated. In addition, the inception of the wave breaking point is postponed because of the reflection and/or turbulence left over from preceding waves, which is an effect of the vertical wall. At higher water levels, the effect of the vertical wall on the inception point becomes more significant.