WAVE FORCES ON FLOATING BREAKWATER

The main objective of this study is to further the studies made from previous experiences
from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. These studies are to evaluate the wave forces
that are applied to the floating breakwater. The report summarizes the laboratory tests
conducted to evaluate the wave forces that are applied to the previously designed floating
breakwater. Generally the geometry design of the floating breakwater will be the same,
using different material. The laboratory tests were conducted in a controlled environment
where tides and currents were not taken into account. The study includes a range of
variation in terms of the environment that was tested. These variations include the
difference of wave periods and water depth upon the floating breakwater. The water
depths are 20cm and 30 em. The tests showed that the peaked wave force occurs during
the wave period of 1.35s. Also, it can be seen that the wave forces has a general
relationship with the wave period, increasing as the wave period increases. A detailed
study was therefore done to study the motions, the wave attenuation performance, and the
energy distribution. It could be seen that at this particular wave period, the wave
attenuation performance is rather low. The study of the motion shows that the floating
breakwater was subjected to relatively uniform wave forces at this wave period.
However, due to the vague methodology, a further detailed experimental setup should be
done. The experimental study was done to compare with Goda's principle formula for
breakwater design. However, it was observed that the formula was not suitable for
floating breakwaters. An observation made from this study is that the wave forces
induced were the highest for Model M-4, which is the inclined slope with keel plate, with
the value of9.58N.