Waves and currents propagation through porous media: model experiments and scale effects

This note is related to the scaling effects of porous media consisting in emerging vertical cylinder array. Wave and current experiments were carried out in a 10m-long flume. Three cylinder diameters are considered in order to study the role of the specific surface while keeping the porosity constant. Both porous media length and water depth are selected to scale with the cylinder diameters. The collected data show the influence of the specific surface on interference process via the reflection coefficient. Then, a theory of wave amplitude attenuation is developed using a force expression based on the work of O’BRIEN & MORISON, 1952. This model is calibrated with drag and inertia coefficients. Finally, scaling emphasizes the importance of the flow regime within the porous media to verify flow similarity.