Context:

The erosive phenomenon on beaches of the Colombian Caribbean has negative repercussions over the people, which is why we decided to analyze different proposals for structures for coastal protection. In order to establish under which conditions each structure works best, a comparative analysis between artificial reefs and floatable structures was made with CFD modeling.

Method:

The Flow3D software was used to evaluate, in two depths of water sheet and two wave height scenarios, five submerged basic structures, group configurations of these basic structures, and a floating plate.

Results:

The effect of depth and geometry on the flow was established for the basic and group structures, as well as the velocity and shear stress fields present for each case. For the floating structure, only the effect of depth was analyzed.

Conclusions:

It was found that the structures that show the best behavior are the triangular prism (for the basic structures) and the cubes (for the group structures); while the conical structure presents the worst behavior in both conditions. Additionally, the floating structure works best when it is closer to the surface while, for the same depth, the group configuration of cubes has a better behavior than the floating structure.