Wave diffractions by a number of (a group of or a row of) vertical cylinders have been investigated in connection with, e.g., multilegged offshore structures (Spring and Monkmeyer(1974), Ohkusu(1974), Chakrabarti(1978), Mciver and Evans(1984), etc.); Wave-Power absorption devices (Miles (1983), Falnes(1984) , Kyllingstad(1984) , etc.); Wave barrier systems (Massel(1976), Kakuno and Oda(1986), etc.). Most of the previous works were, however, mainly aimed at the wave diffractions by cylinders of circular cross section and/or by cylinders of relatively small dimensions compared to wave length. In this paper, we describe a simple yet versatile analytical method to solve wave diffractions by infinite rows of vertical cylinders. In the method, it is assumed, in addition to usual linearised small amplitude assumptions, that: the row of cylinders is composed of infinite number of surface-piercing evenly spaced equal cylinders fixed on sea bottom; incident wave direction is perpendicular to the row; the number of rows may be arbitrary, at least in principle; the cross sectional shape of the cylinders may be arbitrary as long as it is symmetrical with respect to the incident wave ray; and the cylinders are relatively large compared to incident wave length so that inertial forces are predominant to drag forces.
WAVE DIFFRACTIONS BY ROWS OF VERTICAL CYLINDERS OF ARBITRARY CROSS SECTION