Modeling the waves induced by the January 2019 storm in the Caspian Sea in order to investigate the reasons of partial damage of western arm of Caspian Port breakwater

Countries which are benefited from the sea and marine resources are trying to provide proper infra-structures to use the advantages of the seas. Ports, undoubtedly, are the primary and the fundamental infrastructure of every country in the field of marine economics. Governments all over the world spend huge funds on designing, building, and maintenance of these structures. According to the recorded data and field observation, a severe storm in January 2019 occurred in Caspian sea and caused some damages to some parts of the Caspian Port Complex breakwaters which had been constructed at that time. This research with the aim of determining the causes of these damages was carried out to model the aforementioned storm via the SW module of Mike 21 software. Before the modeling, a comprehensive study on the former models of forecasting the specific characteristic of the waves of the studied area had been performed. Results showed that in spite of the fact that the significant wave height considered for designing the profiles was underestimated in calculations, this characteristic during the storm was not higher than the calculated one. Consequently, overtopping phenomenon and lack of the final cover at the top of the breakwaters during the storm were responsible for the partial damages.