| Summary: | Different types of breakwaters have been developed in the past for the protection of valuable coastal property, commercial activity and beach morphology. Among these, gravity-type breakwaters are the most common and provide good surface wave attenuation. However, these breakwaters are not always suitable due to their adverse impact on the coastal environment. To alleviate the problem, free surface breakwaters with a variety of caisson designs have been proposed and developed. The main advantages of such breakwaters are low capital cost, freedom from silting and scouring, short construction period, circulation of water beneath the breakwater and exertion of relatively low hydrodynamic forces on the structure as compared to conventional breakwaters. However, complete tranquillity on the lee side is not likely to occur due to wave energy transfer through the permeable parts of the breakwater. The degree of wave attenuation primarily depends on the configuration of the breakwater, the water depth and the incident wave conditions. The hydrodynamic performance of such free surface breakwaters is the subject of this thesis. Semicircular breakwaters mounted on a low-crested rubble mound structure were successfully built for harbour protection in Japan and China. However, the concept of having semicircular structures as free surface breakwaters has not yet been explored by the research community. As a result, this research is initiated with the aim of developing a free surface semicircular breakwater (SCB) that would serve as an anti-reflection barrier and provide reasonably good wave protection to coastal and marine infrastructures. To meet this research goal, a free surface SCB models were constructed and tested in a wave flume under various wave conditions. The experiments were conducted in three stages. For the first stage, the SCB model was initially tested without any perforations on the curved surface (i.e. a solid SCB) for different depths of immersion from the still water level in the wave flume. For the second ...
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