Application of Numerical Wave Models for Prediction of Wave Characteristics at Deep Sea Ports of Myanmar

An important component of most coastal and ocean engineering projects is an accurate assessment of wave climate at the project site. Wave penetration inside harbors has been one the main issues that port planners and engineers have to deal with in recent years. Realistic wind wave condition in a coastal area, and in and around harbor can be obtained by predicting the wind wave conditions in a large area where the waves are generated. In this research, the numerical wave simulations were carried at two potential sites for deep sea port in Myanmar. Two types of numerical wave models: Phase-averaged model, SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore), and Phase-resolving model, BOUSS (Boussinesq-type equations) were employed to predict the wave characteristics for interested area. The detailed characteristics of wave parameters were determined by two numerical wave models and the results were compared for selected points. From their results, phase-resolving models would be used in small scale area and more preferred because of their ability to calculate accurately diffraction, shoaling, refractions and nonlinearity, especially for calculating specific processes in and around harbors. On the other hand, phase-averaged model could be more suitable for large scale area, where local wave generation is dominant, because of their reliability and time saving processing