Advanced Numerical Modelling of Coastal Defence Structures: Hydrodynamics, Sediment Transport, and Structural Performance

Coastal defence structures such as breakwaters, seawalls, revetments, artificial reefs, and hybrid nature-based systems are increasingly exposed to sea-level rise, storm surges, and more energetic wave climates. Their performance is governed by strongly nonlinear processes, including wave breaking, overtopping, turbulent loading, pore-scale flow, sediment suspension, scour, and structural deformation. Conventional empirical design tools remain indispensable, but they often provide limited resolution when applied to complex geometries, multi-hazard scenarios, or coupled hydro-morphodynamic responses. Developing more reliable, physically interpretable, and scalable numerical tools is therefore essential to enable the design and assessment of resilient, sustainable, and adaptive coastal protection solutions.Recent advances in numerical modelling now offer new opportunities to quantify coastal defence performance with higher physical fidelity and predictive capability. In particular, advanced CFD-based methods and emerging numerical approaches, including but not limited to lattice Boltzmann methods, smoothed particle hydrodynamics, meshfree methods, multiphase solvers, coupled fluid-structure interaction models, high-performance computing, and data-driven techniques, provide powerful tools for resolving complex hydrodynamic, sedimentary, and structural processes across multiple scales.This Research Topic aims to provide a focused forum for next-generation numerical modelling of coastal defence structures and their surrounding nearshore environments. It seeks to advance validated, efficient, and physically interpretable models as enablers of resilient, sustainable, and adaptive coastal protection: models that resolve hydrodynamic forcing, sediment transport, structural response, and performance degradation across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and that translate directly into improved engineering design and decision-making.Contributions are expected to advance both numerical methodology and engineering application, including model development, benchmark validation, field- or laboratory-scale reproduction, uncertainty quantification, and design-oriented assessment. Particular attention will be given to advanced and emerging computational methods, especially lattice Boltzmann methods and smoothed particle hydrodynamics, as well as other high-fidelity numerical approaches for wave-structure interaction, fluid-structure interaction, multiphase flow, sediment dynamics, and coupled hydro-morphodynamic processes.By bringing together advanced numerical modelling, high-performance computing, and data-driven methods, this Topic will support more reliable prediction of wave energy dissipation, scour risk, structural stability, and coastal defence resilience under extreme and evolving environmental conditions, enabling resilient, sustainable, and adaptive coastal protection solutions.This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review, Method, Perspective, and engineering case-study articles. Relevant themes include:1. Development and validation of advanced numerical methods for coastal defence applications, including CFD-based approaches and emerging methods such as LBM, SPH, meshfree, multiphase, and coupled solvers.2. Wave breaking, run-up, overtopping, impact loading, porous-media flow, and turbulent processes around coastal defence structures.3. Sediment transport, local scour, seabed response, and morphology change induced by coastal structures.4. Wave-structure interaction and fluid-structure interaction modelling of stability, fatigue, failure, and life-cycle performance.5. Hybrid coastal defence systems integrating breakwaters, seawalls, reefs, nature-based measures, and wave-energy devices.6. High-performance, multi-scale, uncertainty-aware, and data-driven simulations for design optimisation, risk assessment, and adaptive coastal management.7. Machine learning, reduced-order modelling, and digital twins for monitoring, prediction, and resilience assessment of sustainable and adaptive coastal protection systems under extreme events. Topic editors: Guangwei Liu, Hongjie Wen, Huabin Shi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79230/advanced-numerical-modelling-of-coastal-defence-structures-hydrodynamics-sediment-transport-and-structural-performance