Lighthouses are structures subjected to extreme weather conditions which have to resist strong surge. Therefore to ensure their survival over time, it is necessary to determine the loads that these structures will face during its lifetime. However, load prediction on lighthouse
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Lighthouses are structures subjected to extreme weather conditions which have to resist strong surge. Therefore to ensure their survival over time, it is necessary to determine the loads that these structures will face during its lifetime. However, load prediction on lighthouses is troublesome due to the multiple factors that affect the loading. First, the geometries of lighthouses vary considerably from one to another, not usually representing the classic cylindrical shape by which they are modelled in laboratories. Second, climate change transforms the statistical properties of the sea states and will bring more extreme events in the near future. As so as sea level rise. Lastly, the bathymetry around a lighthouse is considerably different to the ones used to model lighthouses in labs, which can affect wave propagation and breaking. Therefore loading is affected. As the traditional physical methods are both expensive and time consuming, researchers have developed computational tools to accurately represent reality. In this report, waves2Foam (a toolbox within OpenFOAM) will be used to reproduce some tests performed on a physical wave flume. The goal is to represent the conditions of the lab in the computational model so that this model can then be used to represent different geometries and wave loads over lighthouses in an easy and cheap way. Additionally, the most of the current tests were performed with waves directly hitting the lighthouse structure. However in this study, the waves break over a shoal and then the mass of water reaches the structure. This causes a smaller maximum load but the load is applied during a longer time that when a wave breaks directly on the lighthouse. In this study the physical model performed by Piermodesto Caputo (year 2017/2018) and supervised by Professor Renata Archetti and Dr. Alessandro Antonini (co-supervisor) will be modeled using waves2Foam (OpenFOAM). The physical model was performed in Plymouth University laboratory "COAST". The goal of the model was to determine the loads that the Dubh Artach lighthouse will face in the future taking into account sea level rise and extreme weather conditions due to climate change.