Subharmonic resonance of proposed storm gates for Venice Lagoon

Abstract

A recent design of storm barriers at the inlets of Venice Lagoon consists of a number of articulated inclined gates hinged on a horizontal axis on the seabed. In laboratory tests with normally incident waves the gates have been found to oscillate at half of the incident wave frequency and out of phase with their immediate neighbours. In this paper we identify the resonance mechanism by first showing the existence of trapped modes as a consequence of the articulated construction. Experimental evidence is shown for the trapped mode and its subharmonic resonance by normally incident waves.