Numerical and experimental assessment of the reflection coefficient of rubble mound breakwaters with an “S” shaped profile

Abstract

Quantification of the wave reflection from breakwaters is important due to the problems to navigation, port operation and structure stability it may induce. Given the complex interaction between waves and rough slopes, the reflection coefficient is properly unique for each dike type and shape, thus, its estimation depends not only on the wave climate conditions but on the geometry of the structure and its porosity. In this paper a numerical estimation of the reflection coefficient from “S” shaped breakwaters is given from the hydrodynamic results obtained via OpenFoam numerical tool. This information was compared to that published elsewhere and against previous available formulations. The numerical results map well within the ranges experimentally reported, while the best fit model proposed herein showed low dispersion and good precision against the previous formulations. This means that the simple model developed can be used to estimate the reflection coefficient from the originally studied structures and other several kind of structures as well.