Water wave diffraction by segmented permeable breakwaters

This thesis presents an original theoretical investigation, based on diffraction theory (extended for permeable structures by Sollitt & Cross [56]), of the performance of segmented rubble mound breakwaters. The amount of protection offered by such a breakwater is a function of the rubble construction (characterized by porosity and permeability), geometry and spacing of segments as well as depending on the the characteristics of the incident wave field. To explore the influence of these factors on the performance of these breakwaters, the diffraction by three related structures have been considered :a periodic array of impermeable blocks, a single continuous rectangular section permeable structure and a periodic array of permeable blocks in shallow water.