Hydrodynamic Performance of a Multi-Module Three-Cylinder Floating Breakwater System under the Influence of Reefs: A 3D Experimental Study

As the technical and theoretical research of floating breakwaters is becoming increasingly mature, the floating breakwaters are now being utilized, especially in offshore reefs. Therefore, it is of practical significance to study the hydrodynamic performance of a multi-module floating breakwater system under the influence of reefs. In this study, a 3D model experiment was carried out on a system consisting of eight three-cylinder floating breakwater modules under the influence of reefs. A wave attenuation mesh cage was incorporated at the bottom of the model. The floating breakwater system was slack-moored in its equilibrium position, and each module was connected by elastic connectors. The reefs were modeled on a bathymetric map of existing reefs in the East China Sea. In this experiment, the wave transmission coefficients, motion responses, and mooring forces of the floating breakwater system were measured. The results showed that the three-cylinder floating breakwater in the beam waves (β = 90°) has excellent wave attenuating performance under the influence of reefs, especially for short-period waves. However, under the influence of the reef reflection wave and the shallow water effect, the motion responses in the three main stress directions of the floating breakwater were large, and there was some surge and pitch motion. Under the influence of the aggregation and superposition of reflected waves on both sides of the reefs, the peak mooring forces in the middle position of the floating breakwater system were the largest at large wave height. The three-cylinder floating breakwater exhibited satisfactory hydrodynamic performance under the influence of reefs. It has broad application prospects in offshore reefs.

Hydrodynamic Performance Improvement of Double-Row Floating Breakwaters by Changing the Cross-Sectional Geometry

This paper is presented to develop the hydrodynamic performance of double-row floating breakwater (FBW) by changing cross-sectional geometry in the high wave periods. The ANSYS-AQWA software is employed for the present calculations, which is a potential-based boundary element method (BEM). The rectangular moored pontoons in the single- and double-row types are selected, and the results of the wave transmission coefficient and response amplitude operator (RAO) are presented and compared. The numerical results showed good agreement with experimental data at different wavelengths, wave height, and the distance between double-row FBWs. Then, the performance results of FBWs for five shapes (rectangular, π-shaped, plus-shaped, triangular-shaped, and box-shaped) in the wave transmission coefficient, RAO, and mooring line tension are presented and compared to each other. The results showed that the plus-shaped FBW has a better performance in reducing wave transmission than other shapes. In waves with long periods, the performance of π-shaped, triangular-shaped, and box-shaped FBWs is reduced, and the rectangular FBW loses its efficiency. Overall, the plus-shaped FBW has preferable performance regarding RAO response, mooring tension, and wave transmission.

Representative Transmission Coefficient for Evaluating the Wave Attenuation Performance of 3D Floating Breakwaters in Regular and Irregular Waves

Wave attenuation performance is the prime consideration when designing any floating breakwater. For a 2D hydrodynamic analysis of a floating breakwater, the wave attenuation performance is evaluated by the transmission coefficient, which is defined as the ratio between the transmitted wave height and the incident wave height. For a 3D breakwater, some researchers still adopted this evaluation approach with the transmitted wave height taken at a surface point, while others used the mean transmission coefficient within a surface area. This paper aims to first examine the rationality of these two evaluation approaches via verified numerical simulations of 3D heave-only floating breakwaters in regular and irregular waves. A new index—a representative transmission coefficient—is then presented for one to easily compare the wave attenuation performances of different 3D floating breakwater designs.

Wave Attenuation Performance of Floating Breakwater Needs to be Evaluated by Using Irregular Waves

<p>Floating breakwaters have been used to protect shorelines, marinas, very large floating structures, dockyards, fish farms, harbours and ports from harsh wave environments. A floating breakwater outperforms its bottom-founded counterpart with respect to its environmental friendliness, cost-effectiveness in relatively deep waters or soft seabed conditions, flexibility for expansion and downsizing and its mobility to be towed away. The effectiveness of a floating breakwater design is assessed by its wave attenuation performance that is measured by the wave transmission coefficient (i.e., the ratio of the transmitted wave height to the incident wave height or the ratio of the transmitted wave energy to the incident wave energy). In some current design guidelines for floating breakwaters, the transmission coefficient is estimated based on the assumption that the realistic ocean waves may be represented by regular waves that are characterized by the significant wave period and wave height of the wave spectrum. There is no doubt that the use of regular waves is simple for practicing engineers designing floating breakwaters. However, the validity and accuracy of using regular waves in the evaluation of wave attenuation performance of floating breakwaters have not been thoroughly discussed in the open literature. This study examines the wave transmission coefficients of floating breakwaters by performing hydrodynamic analysis of some large floating breakwaters in ocean waves modelled as regular waves as well as irregular waves described by a wave spectrum such as the Bretschneider spectrum. The formulation of the governing fluid motion and boundary conditions are based on classical linear hydrodynamic theory. The floating breakwater is assumed to take the shape of a long rectangular box modelled by the Mindlin thick plate theory. The finite element – boundary element method was employed to solve the fluid-structure interaction problem. By considering heave-only floating box-type breakwaters of 200m and 500m in length, it is found that the transmission coefficients obtained by using the regular wave model may be smaller (or larger) than that obtained by using the irregular wave model by up to 55% (or 40%). These significant differences in the transmission coefficient estimated by using regular and irregular waves indicate that simplifying assumption of realistic ocean waves as regular waves leads to significant over/underprediction of wave attenuation performance of floating breakwaters. Thus, when designing floating breakwaters, the ocean waves have to be treated as irregular waves modelled by a wave spectrum that best describes the wave condition at the site. This conclusion is expected to motivate a revision of design guidelines for floating breakwaters for better prediction of wave attenuation performance. Also, it is expected to affect how one carries out experiments on floating breakwaters in a wave basin to measure the wave transmission coefficients.</p>