Innovative combiwall quay-wall with internal rubble mound chamber: Numerical tools supporting design activities. The case of Vlora's harbor

An unsteady RANS-based CFD model (STAR-CCM+) is used to optimize the non-reflective chamber and define design loads under the action of extreme focused wave groups for the new sheet-pile quaywall of Vlora's harbour. The use of different extreme focused wave groups generated according three different spectral wave conditions, i.e. northern exercise condition, southern exercise and extreme conditions, is presented. The proposed method, through spectral analysis of the incident and reflected wave signal, allows the estimation of the reflection coefficients, hence the identification of the best site specific solution. The recorded pressure time series on the structure surfaces, after a validation by comparison with empirical formulas, allows the definition of the design loads.