ANALYTICAL RESEARCH ON THE WAVE DIFFRACTION OF ARC-SHAPED FLOATING BREAKWATERS

An analytical method was developed to study the wave diffraction on arc-shaped floating breakwaters. The floating breakwater was assumed to be rigid, thin, vertical, immovable and located in water of constant depth. The fluid domain was divided into two regions by imaginary interface. The velocity potential in each region is expanded by eigenfunctions. By satisfying continuity of pressure and normal velocity across the imaginary fluid interface, a set of linear algebraic equations could be obtained to determine the unknown coefficients for eigenfunctions. The accuracy of present model and the computer program were verified by a comparison with existing results for the case of arc-shaped bottom-mounted breakwaters. Numerical results, in the form of contour maps of the non-dimension wave amplitude around the breakwater, were presented for a range of wave and breakwater parameters. Results show the wave diffraction on the arc-shaped floating breakwater is related to the incident wavelength and the draft of the breakwater.