Efficiency and Wave Run-Up of Porous Breakwater with Sloping Deck

In order to protect fragile shoreline and coastal assets during extreme storms, a combined floating breakwater-windbreak has been proposed to reduce both wind and wave energies in the sheltered area. The 1 km-long breakwater has a porous hull with internal tubes to allow free passage of water; thereby further dissipating wave energy. The deck of the structure is designed to have a slope of 25 degrees facing the upstream side, and arrays of cylindrical tubes are placed on the sloping deck to form a windbreak. A reduced-scale (1:50) model test was carried out in a wave flume to examine wave sheltering performance under significant wave heights H-s = 3.0 m to 7.5 m and peak wave periods T-p = 9.4 s to 14 s sea states. Both regular and random wave conditions with different wave heights were considered. It is found that transmission coefficients ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 can be achieved under tested wave conditions. Porous breakwater hull increases the wave dissipation coefficients and is effective in reducing the wave reflection at the upstream side. The wave run-up length is dependent on the Iribarren number if the reduction induced by vertical freeboard is considered. Based on experimental data, empirical formulae have been proposed to predict the wave run-up responses in regular waves, probability of non-zero wave run-up occurrence, modified Weibull distribution of the wave run-up peaks and extreme wave run-up in random waves.

Automated summary

A combined floating breakwater-windbreak has been proposed to protect fragile coastlines and assets during extreme storms. Experimental results show that the porous breakwater hull can reduce wave reflection, increase wave dissipation, and effectively mitigate wave erosion.