Diffraction waves on general two-legged rectangular floating breakwaters

Abstract

In this paper, hydrodynamic characteristics of general two-dimensional rectangular floating breakwaters (FBs) with two legs in water of finite depth and infinite domain subjected to sinusoidal waves are studied using a numerical panel method. A parametric study is carried out in order to quantify the effect of the leg size and the leg angle on diffraction problem, especially on the transmission and reflection coefficients. Results show that legs play an effective role in breakwater’s response to incident waves and two-legged FBs could be used for achieving higher efficiencies compared to conventional rectangular FBs. The angle parameter shows that the inverse T-type FB is the best and the Π type FB is the least good in terms of transmission coefficients. However, practical considerations might also be considered when choosing the best FB configuration for different applications.