Reflection and transmission of waves over submerged breakwaters

This work has a twofold objective. First, a new method to separate incident and reflected wave components, using measurements from one wave probe, is presented. This technique is based on local variations in amplitude and phase of the measured wave and uses wavelet analysis. Second, the method is applied to perform a parametric study to compare the reflection and transmission characteristics of flexible and rigid breakwaters. Results are discussed for different depths of submergence of the models, different internal pressures in the case of the flexible breakwater, and a wide range of wave steepnesses. The results show that, in general, the rigid model has a higher reflection coefficient than the flexible model. On the other hand, the flexible model has a much higher energy-loss coefficient. Optimal breakwater widths for reflection, transmission, and energy-loss coefficients for waves with different wavelenghts are also presented.