Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Inverse T-Type Floating Breakwaters

Abstract

Article History: Received: 6 Feb. 2019 Accepted: 16 Mar. 2019 Various types of floating breakwaters in different configuration and shapes are used to reduce wave height in coastal areas. The most important parameter in designing breakwaters are their shapes which determines hydrodynamic reaction to incident waves. Some cross sections are more effective and more efficient than others. In framework of numerical methods, finite element and boundary element methods are two popular and effective approaches which have been widely applied to floating body problems. In this study by using boundary element method, diffraction problem is solved for a new type of breakwater, which is called inverse T-type floating breakwater. To have a validated results, a rectangular cross section floating breakwater is analyzed and results are compared to previous researches. The final goal of this study is obtaining hydrodynamic characteristics of this new type of breakwater and comparing its response to sinusoidal waves with other conventional floating breakwaters. It is shown that in same weight, this new type of breakwater has better transmission coefficient among other conventional breakwaters and might be used as an efficient alternative.