Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11681/12605
Title: Floating breakwaters : state-of-the-art literature review
Authors: U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station
Hales, Lyndell Z.
Keywords: Floating breakwaters
Structure performance
Literature review
Wave transmission
Mooring loads
Mobile breakwaters
Waves
Publisher: Coastal Engineering Research Center (U.S.)
Engineer Research and Development Center (U.S.)
Series/Report no.: Technical report (Coastal Engineering Research Center (U.S.)) ; no. 81-1.
Description: Technical Report
Abstract: A multitude of conceptual models of floating breakwaters have been proposed without extensive or complete evaluation of most of these concepts. The technical literature regarding floating breakwater applicability and design procedures is fragmentary and sometimes confusing. Clear, concise guidance does not always exist for those responsible for planning and developing wave protection measures which utilize floating breakwaters. This study reviewed and evaluated the existing technical literature (theoretical, field, and laboratory) on floating breakwater concepts. While floating breakwaters provide a lesser assurable degree of protection than a permanently fixed breakwater, they are in general less expensive and can be moved from one location to another. The cost of a floating system is only slightly dependent on water depth and foundation conditions. Adequate wave reduction or energy attenuation can be attained by a floating breakwater only if the incident wave is of a relatively low height. A reasonable magnitude appears to be an incident wave height not exceeding 4 feet, with a corresponding wave period not exceeding 4 seconds. Floating breakwaters can attenuate waves with these incident characteristics to a magnitude tolerable in a small-craft mooring area (wave heights up to 1.5 feet). Open-ocean applications of a distinctly different concept can be formulated to withstand substantial increases in the incident wave characteristics. A group of prismatic structures contains the simplest forms of floating breakwaters. This group offers the best possibilities for multiple use as walkways, storage, boat moorings, and fishing piers. In addition to mass, the radius of gyration and the depth of submergence appear to significantly influence the attenuation characteristics. As the ratio of breakwater width-to-wavelength increases to values greater than 0.5, the wave attenuation features of the structure not only improve markedly, but the net result of the forces on the mooring and anchoring system becomes substantially less. This occurs because the wave dynamics are exerting forces on a part of the structure in a direction opposite to those forces on other parts of the breakwater. NOTE: This file is large. Allow your browser several minutes to download the file.
Hydraulics Laboratory (U.S.)
Rights: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11681/12605
Appears in Collections:Technical Report

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