Experimental Investigation On The Hydrodynamic Characteristics Of Arc-plate Type Breakwater

Performance of traditional breakwaters is pretty good, but there are also some disadvantages, such as not easy to apply in deep water, high cost and other shortcomings. Permeable breakwaters which overcome the above disadvantages and is environment-friendly, have drawn more and more attention. However, the permeable breakwater also has its drawbacks. As part of the wave energy through the permeable breakwater, wave height behind the breakwater will be greater than the traditional breakwater, especially in those cases under long waves.Arc structure which has good mechanical characteristic is effective for wave attenuation. Combining with the characteristics of permeable breakwater and arc structure, the arc-plate type breakwater, which consists of several arc plates, is proposed in this article and its wave damping performance was explored by two dimensional physical model tests. Comparing with the multi-layer horizontal plate permeable breakwaters, the performance of arc-plate type breakwater is proved to be better. Parameters affecting wave dissipation effect were studied, including the amount of the arc plates, relative width, spacing between the arc plates, submerged depth of the top plate, and the height of the arc plate.It is demonstrated that all parameters mentioned above have an effect on the performance of the arc-plate type permeable breakwater. In addition, mechanical characteristic of the arc-plate was analyzed by comparing with the horizontal plate, and the research result shows that the magnitudes of vertical wave forces on both plates are similar.