Hydrodynamic Analysis of Various Cross Sections of Floating Breakwaters

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 and reaction to incident wave. 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 the ANSYS AQWA software has been used to solve diffraction problem of ۴ different types of breakwater : rectangular, cylindrical, triangular and trapezoidal. To have a validated result, a rectangular breakwater which is studied before is analyzed and results are compared to previous researches. The final goal of this study is comparing different breakwater sections and models according to their response to sinusoidal waves. It is shown that in same weight, rectangular cross section breakwater has better transmission coefficient among others and triangular breakwater has lowest reflection coefficient and so lowest efficiency.

Keywords:

Floating Breakwater , rectangular cross section , Cylindrical , Triangular , Trapezoidal