WAVE REFLECTION GENERATED BY CAISSONS WITH INTERNAL RUBBLE MOUND OF VARIABLE SLOPE

Abstract

The paper reports on an experimental campaign focused on the performances of prefabricated caissons with internal rubble mound (combined caissons) in terms of incident wave energy reduction. The frontal opening and the chamber width of the caisson were changed in order to find the optimal design dimensions allowing the reflection coefficient to be reduced as much as possible. As expected, the best performances of the combined caisson occur when the rubble mound slope is gentler. The experimental results were also compared with an analytical model available in literature; such a comparison showed that the combined caisson exhibits a smaller reflection than predicted as far as wave periods higher than 8-9 s at a prototype scale are concerned.