Experimental study on a new floating breakwater with openings, arc-shaped wings, and plates

Abstract

Floating breakwaters are crucial for maintaining the safety and performance of marine structures in relatively deep water. At present, conventional floating breakwaters have limited capability of attenuating medium to long-period waves (with periods ranging from 6 to 10 s in this paper). To enhance the performance of attenuating medium to long waves, a new floating breakwater with openings, arc-shaped wings, and plates is proposed in the present paper. Model experiments were carried out to analyze its wave attenuation performance and hydrodynamic characteristics. Comparative tests were also conducted on its prototype with opening passes and wing structures. The experimental results demonstrate that this new floating breakwater exhibits superior performance in attenuating medium to long waves compared to its prototype. However, this improvement comes at the cost of intensifying localized wave slamming and increasing mooring forces to a certain extent.