Experimental Studies on Submerged Breakwater for Coastal Protection

This project is an experimental study on submerged breakwater for coastal protection
bywave attenuation mechanisms. Basically this project is focusing ondevelopment of
an effective submerged breakwater that will help the industry to reduce waveattackat
erosion hot spots especially along Malaysia coastline. The effectiveness of this
submerged breakwater will hopefully maintain the attractive values of its sandy
beaches. The significant parametersto producea minimum transmission coefficient of
the wave are width and height ofthe breakwater with respect to its water depth. The
main objective of the study is to develop submerged breakwater comprised of a
plurality ofmodules that is effective in reducing wave heights. The early stage of the
study is focusing on the literature review of the existing submerged breakwaters as
well as the proposal of the model design, followed by theconstruction ofthemodules
and the laboratory experiments. The experimental study consists ofan experiment for
wave period determination also the attenuation performance of proposed model in
terms oftransmission coefficient Qin various configurations. From the experimental
result, it is found that the proposed model of submerged breakwater is effective in
attenuating wave energy in terms ofwave transmission. The number ofoptimum row
required to reduce sufficient wave height is three (3). It is better to have a sloping face
at the seaward of the submerged breakwater than a vertical face. The wider the
submerged breakwater, the better will be the performance and greater value ofrelative
depth submergence, /*/# presents better wave energy dissipation.