A laboratory study on wave transmission over hexagonal artificial reef

Abstract

Artificial reefs are commonly used to rehabilitate natural coral reef damage. Artificial reef serves as a new habitat for marine life and simultaneously protect the shoreline by reducing wave energy without reducing the aesthetics of the protected beach. As an artificial reef can serve as submerged breakwaters, the level of their effectiveness in reducing incoming wave need to be investigated. The new form hexagonal shape artificial reef is proposed then evaluated based on the transmission coefficient. The tests for various configurations of a hexagonal reef in a 1:10 scale were conducted in the wave flume of Department Ocean Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya. The result of tests was presented and showed that the new proposed hexagonal shape artificial reefs have better performance compared to cylindrical and cubical shape artificial reefs.