Wave Control by Tide-Adapting Submerged Breakwater

Abstract

A submerged breakwater is a coastal structure built under water with excellent landscape. The depth of the crest of the breakwater should be maintained at more than a certain level in order for the submerged breakwater to control waves properly. This means that the effect of blocking waves deceases sharply at high tide in coastal areas with large tidal differences. In this study, we proposed a Tide-Adapting Submerged Breakwater (TA-SB) to overcome this problem, and then we conducted hydraulic model experiments to evaluate the performance of the TA-SB for controlling waves. The experimental results showed that the tapered wings attached to the crest of the TA-SB helped induce forced breaking waves. In particular, they were very effective in blocking waves and attenuating wave energy at high tide. In addition, the wave control performance of the proposed TA-SB was far superior to the Tide-Adapting Low-Crested Structure (TA-LCS) of the previous study.

Keywords

• tide-adapting submerged breakwater
• wave reflection
• wave transmission
• wave energy dissipation
• breakwater development
• hydraulic experiment