Hydraulic Investigation of the H-type Floating Breakwater

Floating breakwaters are commonly used for wave
protection of onshore and offshore facilities in the last decade.
The majority of the floating breakwaters developed in the past
are solid-type structures that have fixed drafts and may be highly
reflective to the incoming waves. In this study, the H-type
floating breakwater is proposed to serve as a wave attenuator
instead of a wave reflector. The buoyancy of the breakwater is
controlled by the placement of sandbags in the chamber
embedded within the main body of the structure. The study aims
to investigate the hydraulic properties of the H-type floating
breakwater in random waves via a physical modeling. The
hydraulic characteristics of the breakwater are quantified by the
reflection and transmission coefficients as well as the energy
dissipation coefficient. The experimental results have shown that
the H-type floating breakwater is hydraulically efficient and
provides high wave attenuation capability when subjected to
short-period waves.