Numerical Study on the Effect of Gap Diffraction on the Hydrodynamic Performance of A Floating Breakwater

Two-dimensional(2D)flume experiments are useful in investigating the performances of floating breakwaters(FBs),including hydrodynamic performances,motion responses,and mooring forces.Designing a reasonable gap between the flume wall and the FBs is a critical step in 2D flume tests.However,research on the effect of the gap on the accuracy of 2D FB experimental results is scarce.To address this issue,a numerical wave tank is developed using CFD to estimate the wave-FB interaction of a moored dual-cylindrical FB,and the results are compared to experimental data from a previously published work.There is good agreement between them,indicating that the numerical model is sufficiently accurate.The numerical model is then applied to explore the effect of gap diffraction on the performance of FBs in2D experiments.It was discovered that the nondimensional gap length L_(Gap)/W_(Pool)should be smaller than 7.5%to ensure that the relative error of the transmission coefficient is smaller than 3%.The influence of the gap is also related to the entering wave properties,such as the wave height and period.

Effect of Under Connected Plates on the Hydrodynamic Efficiency of the Floating Breakwater

In this paper, the hydrodynamic efficiency of a floating breakwater system is experimentally studied by use of physical models. Regular waves with wide ranges of wave heights and periods are tested. The efficiency of the breakwater is presented as a function of the wave transmission, reflection, and energy dissipation coefficients. Different parameters affecting the breakwater efficiency are investigated, e.g. the number of the under connected vertical plates, the length of the mooring wire, and the wave length. It is found that, the transmission coefficient kt decreases with the increase of the relative breakwater width B/L, the number of plates n and the relative wire length l/h, while the reflection coefficient kr takes the opposite trend. Therefore, it is possible to achieve kt values smaller than 0.25 and kr values larger than 0.80 when B/L is larger than 0.25 for the case of l/h-1.5 and n=4. In addition, empirical equations used for estimating the transmission and reflection coefficients are developed by using the dimensionless analysis, regression analysis and measured data and verified by different theoretical and experimental results.

Experimental Study of A Pile-Restrained Floating Breakwater Constructed of Pontoon and Plates

A pile-restrained pontoon-plate floating breakwater is proposed in this paper. The laboratory physical-model tests are conducted to investigate the wave-dissipation property and heave-motion response of a model. The influence of the model＇s geometric parameters including relative pontoon width, plate width, number of plates and pontoon draft on wavedissipation performance and heave-motion response are discussed, as well as the correlation between these two factors. The result indicates that wave-dissipation performance of the proposed structure is better than the pontoon structure： its transmission coefficient and heave-motion height are reduced by 0.2 and 0.3, respectively, in comparison with those of the pile-restrained pontoon model at a relative pontoon width of 0.2.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Interactions Between Free-Surface Waves and A Floating Breakwater with Cylindrical-Dual/Rectangular-Single Pontoon

This paper investigates the hydrodynamic performance of a cylindrical-dual or rectangular-single pontoon floating breakwater using the numerical method and experimental study. The numerical simulation work is based on the multi-physics computational fluid dynamics(CFD) code and an innovative full-structured dynamic grid method applied to update the three-degree-of-freedom(3-DOF) rigid structure motions. As a time-marching scheme, the trapezoid analogue integral method is used to update the time integration combined with remeshing at each time step.The application of full-structured mesh elements can prevent grids distortion or deformation caused by large-scale movement and improve the stability of calculation. In movable regions, each moving zone is specified with particular motion modes(sway, heave and roll). A series of experimental studies are carried out to validate the performance of the floating body and verify the accuracy of the proposed numerical model. The results are systematically assessed in terms of wave coefficients, mooring line forces, velocity streamlines and the 3-DOF motions of the floating breakwater. When compared with the wave coefficient solutions, excellent agreements are achieved between the computed and experimental data, except in the vicinity of resonant frequency. The velocity streamlines and wave profile movement in the fluid field can also be reproduced using this numerical model.

Experimental Research on A New Type of Floating Breakwater for Wave-Absorbing and Energy-Capturing

To avoid the damage caused by big wind and wave in cage culture, and to solve the problem of energy supply faced by automatic breeding equipment, a new type of floating breakwater, named as Savonius double buoy breakwater(SDBB), is proposed in the paper. The floating breakwater is composed of HDPE cylindrical double buoys and horizontal axis Savonius rotors, and has the functions of wave-absorbing and energy-capturing. Based on the linear wave theory and energy conservation law, the Fourier Transform was applied to separate the two-dimensional wave frequency domain, and the energy captured by the rotors and absorbed by the floating breakwater were calculated.Experiments were conducted in a two-dimensional wave-making flume, and the transmitted waves at different wave heights and periods, the tension of mooring lines, and the rotational torque exerted on the Savonius rotor were measured. A series of performance comparison tests were also performed on the new floating breakwater and the traditional double-floating breakwater. Results show that the new floating breakwater is better than the traditional one in terms of reducing wave transmittance, and the combination of the floating breakwater with Savonius rotors can provide for marine aquaculture equipments with green power supply to a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

Time-domain hydrodynamic analysis of pontoon-plate floating breakwater

The hydrodynamic behaviors of a floating breakwater consisting of a rectangular pontoon and horizontal plates are studied theoretically. The fluid motion is idealized as two-dimensional linear potential flow. The motions of the floating breakwater are assumed to be two-dimensional in sway, heave, and roll. The solution to the fluid motion is derived by transforming the governing differential equation into the integral equation on the boundary in time domain with the Green＇s function method. The motion equations of the floating breakwater are established and solved with the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method to obtain the displacement and velocity of the breakwater. The mooring forces are computed with the static method. The computational results of the wave transmission coefficient, the motion responses, and the mooring forces of the pontoon-plate floating breakwater are given. It is indicated that the relative width of the pontoon is an important factor influencing the wave transmission coefficient of the floating breakwater. The transmission coefficient decreases obviously as the relative width of the pontoon increases. The horizontal plates help to reduce the wave transmission over the floating breakwater. The motion responses and the mooring forces of the pontoon-plate floating breakwater are less than those of the pontoon floating breakwater. The mooring force at the offshore side is larger than that at the onshore side.

Experimental Study on Wave Attenuation Performance of A New Type of Floating Breakwater with Twin Pontoons and Multi Porous Vertical Plates

A floating breakwater(FB)has extensive potential applications in the fields of coastal,offshore,and ocean engineering owing to its advantages such as eco-friendliness,low cost,easy and rapid construction,and quick dismantling and reinstallation.An FB composed of twin pontoons and multi-porous vertical plates is proposed to improve the wave attenuation performance.The wave attenuation performance is investigated for different FB structures and vertical plate types under different incident wave heights and periods using 2D wave physical model tests in a wave flume.The results demonstrate that the proposed FB has a better performance than that of the conventional single pontoon-type FB.It reduces the wave transmission due to its enhanced wave reflection and energy loss.The wave transmission coefficient of the proposed FB decreases with an increase in the number of layers and relative draft depth of the vertical plates.However,a further decrease in the wave transmission coefficient is not observed when the number of porous vertical plates is increased from 4 to 5 layers.An equation has been derived to predict the wave transmission of the proposed FB based on the experimental results.

Experimental Study on Rectangular Floating Breakwaters

This paper proposes ten types of improved floating breakwaters for experiment with regular waves, based on the experience in the development and manufacture of existing floating breakwaters both at home and abroad, and on the results of experimental studies on the hydraulic characteristics of several types of floating breakwaters. The wave heights before and behind the breakwaters are measured, the movements of floating breakwaters are observed and the chain forces of the floating breakwaters are measured. The paper studies and compares the hydraulic characteristics of the improved rectangular floating breakwaters of which the internal and external structures and their installation methods are changed. Finally the optimal type of structure is selected through experiments.

Wave Extraction and Attenuation Performance of A Hybrid System of An Edinburgh Duck WEC and A Floating Breakwater

Installing the Edinburgh Duck Wave Energy Converter(ED WEC)on a floating breakwater provides a potential solution to reduce costs and improve the reliability of the ED WEC.To investigate the interactions between the ED WEC and the breakwater,a two-dimensional numerical model of a hybrid WEC-breakwater system is established based on Star-CCM+Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)software.The wave energy extraction performance,wave attenuation performance,and wave forces on the breakwater of the hybrid system are compared with those of the corresponding single device.The effects of the initial attack angle,the distance between the WEC and the breakwater,and the incident wave height on the pitch motion,energy conversion efficiency,transmission coefficient,and wave forces on the breakwater of the hybrid system are analyzed.The results indicate that combing the ED WEC with a breakwater can improve the energy extraction performance of the ED WEC and reduce the wave forces on the breakwater in shorter-period waves.The conversion efficiency of the hybrid system with the initial attack angle of 42°is the largest in shorter-period waves,but is reduced with the increase of initial attack angle in longer-period waves.The wave attenuation performance of the hybrid system is determined by the draft of the breakwater.The distance between the WEC and the breakwater has little effect on the hybrid system.Wave energy extraction of the ED WEC of the hybrid system decreases significantly with the increase of the incident wave height.

Hydrodynamic Performance of A Dual-Floater Integrated System Com-bining Hybrid WECs and Floating Breakwaters

The high investment and low return of wave energy converters(WECs)seriously hamper their large-scale commercial application.The integration of WECs and floating breakwaters is conducive to enhance the competitiveness of wave energy conversion.The objective of this paper is to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of a WEC-breakwater integrated system combining an upstream oscillating water column(OWC)and a downstream oscillating buoy(OB)via numerical simulations and physical experiments.A nonlinear numerical wave flume using Star-CCM+software is employed to obtain calculated results,where a tiny transverse gap is set between the flume wall and the block surface to simulate a similar two-dimensional(2D)model.The corresponding physical experiments are also carried out in a practical wave flume to verified the numerical results.The comparison of the isolated and hybrid system shows that the hybrid design leads to the decreased conversion efficiency of each WEC,but improves the transmission performance of the hybrid system.The wave resonance between two devices causes the abrupt reduction of OWC efficiency and a positive correlation exists with the OB efficiency.The total efficiency of the hybrid system is raised by an optimal opening ratio,a shallow OWC draft and a short spacing distance.Except for the OWC draft,other design parameters have weak effect on the wave attenuation of the hybrid system.This paper can help understand hydrodynamics of the hybrid WECs integrated with breakwaters and improve their performances.

Theoretical Calculation of Floating Breakwater Performance

In this paper, the theoretical calculation of floating breakwater performance in regular waves with arbitrary wave direction is discussed. Under the hypothesis of linearized system and applying the strip theory, we can solve the boundary condition problems of diffraction potential and radiation potential. Introducing the asymptotic expression of the wave velocity potential at infinity and using wave energy conservation, we can separately calculate the transmitted waves generated by the sway, heave and roll motion of the floating breakwater and by the fixed breakwater. Finally, we define the amplitude ratio of the transmitted wave to the incident wave as the transmitted wave coefficient CT which describes the floating breakwater effectiveness. Two examples are given and the theoretical results obtained by the present method agree well with experimental results.

Study on Performance of Savonius Rotor Type Wave Energy Converter Used in Conjunction with Floating Breakwater

In the present study,the performance characteristics of a Savonius rotor type wave energy converter used in conjunction with a conventional double-buoy floating breakwater is investigated using physical model studies.The Savonius rotor type converter is suspended under the double-buoy floating breakwater to achieve wave attenuation while generating electricity,thereby enhancing the overall wave-elimination effect of the combination.The Savonius rotor is tested with different water submergence depths,and a reasonable relative submergence depth is determined within the scope of the research parameters.The hydrodynamics and energy capture performance of the combined breakwater with four different sizes of Savonius rotor under different wave conditions are studied,and the transmission coefficient of the experimental device is analyzed.The results show that when the optimal relative submergence depth is 0.65D,where D is the impeller diameter,there is a correspondence between the optimal performance of Savonius rotor with different rotor sizes and the wave period and wave height.The optimal energy capture efficiency of the wave energy converter reaches 17%−20.5%,and the transmission coefficient is reduced by 35%−45%compared with the conventional double-buoy breakwater.

Vertical membrane floating breakwater

The basic purpose of any breakwater is to protect a harbor, moored vessels or an offshore structure from excessive incident wave attack. Breakwater can be classified as either fixed structures or floating ones. The vertical membrane floating breakwater which will be introduced in this paper belongs to the latter.

Comparison of Hydrodynamic Performances Between Single Pontoon and Double Pontoon Floating Breakwaters Through the SPH Method

A numerical study adopting the 2Dδ-SPH model is performed to compare the hydrodynamic characteristics of a single pontoon floating breakwater and a double pontoon floating breakwater.Numerical simulations are performed using theδ-SPH model and experimental tests are conducted to validate the numerical model.The numerical results of both the free surface elevations and motions of the floating breakwater are in good agreement with the experimental results.Numerical results show that when the pontoon drafts are larger,the double pontoon floating breakwater performs better in wave attenuations compared with the single pontoon floating breakwater,and for all the drafts,the amplitudes of motions including sway,heave and roll of the double pontoon floating breakwater is always smaller.In addition,increasing the spacing between the two pontoons can further reduce the amplitudes of pontoon motions and improve the wave attenuation ability of the double pontoon floating breakwater.

Scattering of Water Waves by Dual Symmetric Inclined Floating Porous Barriers Using the DBEM

The scattering of normally incident water waves by two surface-piercing inclined perforated barriers in water with a uniform finite depth is investigated within the framework of linear water wave theory.Considering that thin barriers are zero-thickness,a novel numerical method involving the the coupling of the dual boundary element method(DBEM)with damping layers is applied.In order to effectively damp out the reflected waves,two damping layers,instead of pseudoboundaries are implemented near the two side boundaries of the computational domain.Thus,the modified linearized free surface boundary conditions are formulated and used for solving both the ordinary boundary integral equation as well as the hypersingular boundary integral equation for degenerate boundaries.The newly developed numerical method is validated against analytical methods using the matched eigenfunction expansion method for the special case of two vertical barriers or the inclined angle to the vertical being zero.The influence of the length of the two damping layers has been discussed.Moreover,these findings are also validated against previous results for several cases.After validation,the numerical results for the reflection coefficient,transmission coefficient and dissipation coefficient are obtained by varying the inclination angle and porosity-effect parameter.The effects of both the inclination angle and the porosity on the amplitudes of wave forces acting on both the front and rear barriers are also investigated.It is found that the effect of the inclination angle mainly shifts the location of the extremal values of the reflection and the transmission coefficients.Additionally,a moderate value of the porosity-parameter is quite effective at dissipating wave energy and mitigating the wave loads on dual barriers.

The influence of perforated plates on wave transmission and hydrodynamic performance of pontoon floating breakwater

In this study, a perforated pontoon floating breakwater（FB） consisting of an impermeable plate and a perforated plate was designed to untangle the effect of a perforated plate on wave transmission and hydrodynamic performance of floating breakwater. A series of 2-D physical model experiments were conducted to measure the wave transmission coefficient, tension acting on the mooring line, and motion response of FB under a regular wave. The experimental results of the motion responses and mooring lines indicated that the new perforated plate was evidently effective. Furthermore, the study also discussed and analyzed the influence of the perforated plate on transmission coefficients. The experimental results showed that the new perforated plate did not lead to obvious improvement in the transmission performance

Hydrodynamics of a dual-module pontoon-net floating breakwater system:Numerical simulations and prototype tests

Floating breakwaters with a mooring system have been widely applied to protect marine infrastructures(e.g.,artificial beach or island,aquaculture farm or marine vessels in harbors)from being destroyed by severe waves.In this paper,an innovative cylindrical dual pontoon-net floating breakwater was developed to enhance the wave attenuation capacity.This dual-module floating breakwater system was constructed as the prototype for on-site testing.A fully nonlinear time-domain model based on the coupled iterative solutions of the fluid integral equation and the pontoon-net dynamic equations was proposed to simulate the interactions between waves and the floating breakwater system.The flow field around the nets was simulated by introducing a porous-media model with Darcy’s law,while the deformation of the flexible nets was solved by using the lumped mass model.The instantaneous free surface was captured using the mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian(MEL)approach which employs an improved moving-grid technique based on the spring analysis to re-mesh the instantaneous water surface and the body wetted surface.On-site tests were also conducted to evaluate wave transmission performance of the floating breakwater system and to validate the numerical model.The comparisons show that the numerical solutions are in good agreement with the measured data.The effects of incident wave direction,wave period,wave height,net height,net number and net porosity on the hydrodynamic performance of the floating breakwater system were emphatically examined.

ANALYTICAL RESEARCH ON THE WAVE DIFFRACTION OF ARC-SHAPED FLOATING BREAKWATERS

An analytical method was developed to study the wave diffraction on are-shaped floating breakwaters. The floating breakwater was assumed to be rigid, thin, vertical, immovable and located in water of constant depth. The fluid domain was divided into two regions by imaginary interface, The velocity potential in each region is expanded by eigenfunctions. By satisfying continuity of pressure and normal velocity across the imaginary fluid interface, a set of linear algebraic equations could be obtained to determine the unknown coefficients for eigenfunctions. The accuracy of present model and the computer program were verified by a comparison with ex isting results for the case of arc-shaped bottom-mounted breakwaters. Numerical results, in the form of contour maps of the non-dimension wave amplitude around the breakwater, were presented for a range of wave and breakwater parame ters. Results show the wave diffraction on the arc-shaped floating breakwater is related to the incident wavelength and the draft of the breakwater.

Design and Overall Strength Analysis of Multi-Functional Elastic Connections Floating Breakwater System

As a new type of marine structure,floating breakwater can provide suitable water area for coastal residents.In this paper,a multi-module floating breakwater with three cylinders was designed.According to the characteristics of each module,the elastic connector was created.The cabins with functions such as living,generating electricity and entertainment were arranged.A linear spring constrained design wave(LSCDW)method for strength analysis of floating marine structures with multi-module elastic connections was proposed.The numerical model was verified by 1:50 similarity ratio in the test tank.According to the analysis of design wave and extreme wave conditions,considering the mooring loads and environmental loads and connector loads,the overall strength of breakwater was analyzed by LSCDW method.These studies can provide new insights and theoretical guidance for the design of multi-module floating structures.

Wave Diffraction on Arc-Shaped Floating Perforated Breakwaters

An analytical method is developed to study the sheltering effects on arc-shaped floating perforated breakwaters. In the process of analysis, the tloating breakwater is assumed to be rigid, thin, vertical, and immovable and located in water with constant depth. The fluid domain is divided into two regions by imaginary interface. The velocity potential in each region is expanded by eigenfunction in the context of linear theory. By satisfying continuity of pressure and normal velocity across the imaginary fluid interface, a set of linear algebraic equations can be obtained to determine the unknown coefficients for eigenfunction expansions. The accuracy of the present model was verified by a comparison with existing results for the case of arc-shaped floating breakwater. Numerical results, in the form of contour maps of the non-dimensional wave amplitude around the breakwater and diffracted wave amplitude at typical sections, are presented for a range of wave and breakwater parameters. Results show that the sheltering effects on the arc-shaped floating perforated breakwater are closely related to the incident wavelength, the draft and the porosity of the breakwater.