Investigation on hydrodynamic performance of an environmentally friendly pile breakwater

Abstract

In this paper, a type of pile breakwater is studied in a configuration that can provide an effective shore protection structure. While, the rubble mound breakwaters are the most common type, but they suffer from a number of shortcomings including the interruption of water that may lead to deterioration of water quality and corresponding environmental problems. The breakwater of this study with rows of piles can be used against sea waves, as an alternative. Its hydraulic performance, including wave reflection and transmission, shear stresses, pressure measurements, drag and inertia coefficients are investigated. In the first step, the hydrodynamics around the mono-piles with square cross-sections are inspected. The parametric equations are developed to measure the optimal orientation of the piles. As evidenced in the literature, relatively limited works have been carried out on this kind of piles. Also, the performance of the considered pile breakwaters are evaluated. To do this, the numerical results are calibrated and validated by experimentation. It is observed that the group piles with the square cross-section in optimum conditions, could have a higher value of reflection almost between 7 even to almost 30 percent, than other considered conditions with mild and short waves. It can be related to the effect of the square piles edges on the separation process of the flow.