Wave uplift force on horizontal panels: a laboratory study

Accurate estimation of wave uplift force is essential to the designs of reliable coastal and marine structures. We presents a series of laboratory work here on the impact of regular waves on horizontal panels, from which an empirical formula to estimate accurately the wave uplift force on panels is established. The laboratory measurements show that the wave uplift force depends mainly on the incident wave height, the wave period, the wave length, the panel width, and the clearance between the subsurface of the panel and the still water level. Among these factors, the impact of the panel width on uplift forces is relatively complicated. Result shows that the relative panel width (i.e., the ratio of panel width to wave length) plays a more important role in estimating the wave uplift force. Based on our comprehensive laboratory measurements, we further developed an empirical formula to compute wave uplift force on horizontal panels through dimensionless analysis. Compared with other empirical formulas, this formula uses dimensionless variables of clear physical meanings, thus can describe the interaction between waves and the panels in a better way. In addition, the efficiency of the formula to estimate wave uplift force on horizontal panels is verified against existing works. Therefore, the findings in this study shall be useful for understanding the mechanism of wave uplift force on horizontal panels and numerical model validation.