Development of Prediction Models for Hydrodynamic Performance of Semicircular Breakwater

Abstract

Breakwaters are structures built to protect harbors, shore areas, basins, and other areas from the fury of sea waves. They create calm waters and provide for the safe mooring and handling of ships, as well as protection to harbor facilities. The main function of a breakwater is the formation of an artificial harbor. Of late, certain new types of breakwaters have been constructed to cater to the tranquility requirements of managing marine traffic in ports. The semicircular breakwater (SBW) is one such new type of breakwater. The semicircular breakwater possesses a round top and, thus, offers more stability against the action of waves. It is expected that the SBW will be well suited as an offshore breakwater designed to protect beaches from coastal erosion. A number of experiments were conducted on scaled-down physical models of SBW for different values of parameters such as wave height H, wave period T, spacing of perforations on the seaside, etc. (radius of breakwater and diameter of perforations were kept constant), and data were collected. The paper presents the prediction models/equations for hydrodynamic performance characteristics such as reflection coefficient and relative wave runup, using the data obtained by a regression approach in MATLAB.