Experimental Investigation of Dynamic Response and Wave Dissipation of a Horizontal Plate Breakwater

In recent years, floating breakwaters are considered for protecting the offshore engineering structures in the deep sea. Further, to expand the capabilities of the horizontal plate breakwater, an elastic supported horizontal plate (ESHP) breakwater is developed as an eco-friendly and high energy dissipation structure. In this study, the wave dissipation effect of an ESHP breakwater is investigated with experimental tests. Then the hydrodynamic coefficients and the wave force acting on the breakwater are analyzed with a variable stiffness of support spring and wave conditions. The experimental study shows that the interaction between the radiation wave of the heaving plate and scattered waves causes additional vortex flow, and the wave height is reduced rapidly at the lee side of the breakwater. Then the wave dissipation mechanism of ESHP breakwater for incident waves with different incident wave heights is discussed. At last, the wave force changes due to plate motion are also revealed to ensure the robustness of the structure.