Numerous types of floating breakwaters have been proposed, tested and commercialized in the past
decades. The majority of these breakwaters are made of solid bodies; hence, they are relatively bulky and are not
readily to be rapidly installed at the targeted sites when immediate wave protection of the coastal and offshore
facilities is needed. Furthermore, the application of these hard floating structures at the recreational beaches is
rather unlikely due to potential deadly marine traffic collision. To overcome these problems, a flexible air-filled
wave attenuator (AFWA) has been developed in the present study. This floating breakwater is made of flexible
waterproof membrane materials. The main body consists of a rectangular air-filled prism and is ballasted by
sandbags located around the floating module. The objective of this study is to evaluate the wave transmission,
wave reflection, energy dissipation, motion responses and mooring forces of the AFWA under the random wave
actions using physical modelling. The test model located in a 20 m long wave flume was subjected to a range of
wave heights and periods. The wave profiles in the vicinity of the test model were measured using wave probes
for determination of wave transmission, reflection and energy loss coefficients. The motion responses in terms
of heave, surge and pitch, and wave forces acting on the mooring lines were measured using a motion tracking
system and load cells, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the AFWA is effective in attenuating up
to 95% in the incoming wave height and has low-wave-reflection properties, which is commendable for floating
breakwaters.
PEREIRA Eric Joseph1 (佩雷拉·埃里克·约瑟夫), TEH Hee-Min1,2∗ (郑希铭), MA Zhe3 (马 哲)
. Hydrodynamic Performance of Air-Filled Wave Attenuator for
Wave Control: Experimental Study[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2022
, 27(3)
: 316
-325
.
DOI: 10.1007/s12204-022-2444-3
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