Porosity effects on non-breaking surface waves over permeable submerged breakwaters

This study investigated how the porosity of submerged breakwaters affects non-breaking wave transformations. Eight model geometries each with six different porosities, from 0.421 to 0.912, were also considered. Experimental results reveal that the model width has little effect on wave reflection and transmission when the model heights are fixed. The transmission coefficient is maximum at a kh in the range from 1.3 to 2.0 and minimum at a kh around 0.7. The wave reflection maximum is at kh of near 0.5. The energy loss of the primary waves is maximum near kh=0.81 and minimum when the porosity of the model is large. Porosity does affect wave transformation and its influence becomes significant as the heights of the models increase. For the range of porosities tested, wave energy loss from the primary harmonic was found to be almost constant at around 0.4 when kh >1.3, decreasing slowly when kh <1.3; wave energy loss decreases for porosities above 0.75.