Experimental Investigation of Cylindrical Floating Breakwater Performance with Various Mooring Configurations

Abstract

Floating breakwaters are typically used to protect small marinas or for shoreline erosion control on limited-fetch water bodies in which wavelengths are relatively short, such as lakes, reservoirs, and bays. In spite of the large amount of literature on floating breakwaters, there is still a lack of knowledge on the performance of cylindrical breakwaters, which, as a result of their simplicity, can minimize construction and material costs. In this paper, we describe a laboratory investigation of the hydrodynamic interaction of cylindrical breakwaters with monochromatic waves in deep and transitional water depths such as are found in small reservoirs. The tested breakwater models feature single- and multiple-cylinder cross sections combined with bottom-moored, arm-restrained (connected to shoreline), and pile-restrained configurations. When the breakwater models were fixed, the reflection was higher than in the partially restrained models, and the efficiency was strongly dependent on draft ratio (