Wave Energy Absorption Performance of a Vertical Wave Screen System

Wave flumes equipped with wave generating facilities are commonly used to
perform various types of physical modeling in laboratories. The placement of wave
absorbers near reflective boundaries of the flume is aimed to dissipate the energy of
incoming waves. Failure to do so could affect significantly the uniformity of wave
train and eventually winder the accuracy any of the experiment carried out in the
flume. In. this study, aVertical Wave Screen System, (VWSS) is proposed to taclde
the problem. Laboratory experiments had been conducted with aim to study the
effectiveness of applying the VWSS as awave absorber in the wave flume. Aseries
of laboratory test was carried out to investigate the wave reflection characteristics
corresponding to the different number of wave screen, namely 4-screen, 8-screen
and 12-screen. The laboratory investigations were conducted in the wave-only
condition in the flume, which are subjected to steady monochromatic non-breaking
waves throughout the experiments. Atotal of240 experiments runs were conducted
relating all variable to the wave characteristics such as, wave height, water depth and
wave period. Assessment of results was done to identify the performance and the
limitation of the proposed wave absorber. Comparisons of wave energy absorbing
performance in term ofreflection ofcoefficient, C, were also made in this study.