Three different breaking wave impacts against a flat rigid wall have been numerically simulated by SPH-Flow software developed by HydrOcean and Ecole Centrale Nantes at two different scales: scale 1 and scale 1/6, using the same fluids (water and air).

Only the last stage of the impacts are simulated with two compressible fluids (liquid and gas), with a high density of particles, after a restart from an initial calculation by a potential code, FSID, developed by Yves-Marie Scolan [1]. The three wave shapes before impact have been tuned in order to be representative of the shapes obtained during impact tests in flume tanks.

The different assumptions and models are presented for the six calculations. Results are presented in terms of pressure surfaces p(z, t), where z is the height of any point of the wall and t is the time. These pressure surfaces are analysed with regard to the wave characteristics and decomposed in Elementary Loading Processes [2]. Results at the two different scales are compared.

[1] Scolan, Y.-M., Some aspects of the flip-through phenomenon: A numerical study based on the desingularized technique, Journal of Fluids and Struct. 26, 918-953. 2011-49992, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
[2] Lafeber, W., Brosset, L., Bogaert, H., Elementary Loading Processes (ELP)
involved in breaking wave impacts: findings from the Sloshel project, 22th (2012) Int. Offshore and Polar Eng. Conf., Rhodos, Greece, ISOPE.