Abstract:

The theoretical formulations and programming algorithms necessary to solve real engineering problems are frequently excessively complex to be addressed by undergraduate students. To avoid such obstacle, commercial and/or user-friendly software is frequently used. However, with this approach the students behave as end-users and they cannot properly understand the basics and the complexity of the underlying physical processes. Classical approaches such as the resolution of numerical exercises are not enough to provide an overall view of the problem to the students.

In the field of marine and coastal engineering, the analysis and the simulation of the wave climate and the wave propagation towards coastal areas are fundamental knowledge for the capabilities that undergraduate civil engineer and marine science students must achieved. The main objective of this work is presenting two visual tools that solve numerical methods typically applied in the field of expertize of marine and coastal engineering. The first tool analyses and simulates the wave climate from an input file provided by the students; the second performs the wave propagation from offshore towards two specific field sites previously calibrated and validated.

The visual tools were developed and implemented in Matlab on the basis of field data and the research and teaching experience of the authors. Those tools are provided to the students simultaneously with the theoretical background on these physical processes. The visual options and requirements of the tools are kept to a minimum to avoid distractions and to help students focusing on the math and the physics of the problems. The critical analysis of the results by the students play a key role in their learning processes. Our experience with this approach is highly satisfactory, with students presently involved in developing new tools.

Keywords:

Graduate Students, engineering, Matlab.