Wave Transmission through Artificial Reef Breakwaters: Fid-Bau Portal

Wave Transmission through Artificial Reef Breakwaters

Webb, Bret M. / Allen, Richard

The use of artificial reefs as wave attenuating structures is becoming more common in the design of living shoreline projects. Unfortunately, their behavior and performance are not widely known. A series of geometrically scaled laboratory experiments were conducted to measure wave transmission behind bagged oyster shell breakwaters, concrete wave transmission frustums, and triangular oyster shell cages. The experiments covered a range of water depths and wave characteristics representative of conditions commonly encountered at project sites throughout the Gulf Coast. The wave attenuating capabilities of the various structures are described in terms of hydrodynamic parameters and structure geometries. Experimental results reveal strong correlations between wave transmission and simple, dimensionless parameters. However, existing methods for estimating wave transmission through rubble mound structures do not provide accurate estimates for these structures. This work will lead to the development of simple predictive equations for estimating wave transmission coefficients, within an appropriate range of uncertainty, for these complex and unique non-rock alternatives.