Visualization Investigation of Energy Dissipation Induced by Eddy Currents for a Solitary-Like Wave Passing over Submerged Breakwater Sets

Wave attenuation for the purpose of coastal protection has been an important topic in coastal engineering. Wave attenuation in relation to the vortices induced by a solitary-like wave propagating over submerged breakwaters (BWs) is discussed in this paper. A series of hydraulic model experiments was conducted to investigate the occurrence of eddies, the types and combinations of submerged BWs, and related phenomena of the range expansion of vortices. The microscopic changes in the flow field, the variation of eddies, and the distributions of streamlines were analyzed using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The measured transmission and reflection coefficients, along with the concept of energy conservation, were also examined to support the results. The results indicate that the attenuated wave energy is related to the induced vortices, and show that the total relative vortex energy for rectangular submerged BWs is larger than that for undulating submerged BWs in both the single and composite sets. The magnitude of the maximum vorticity of the undulating BW sets is larger and more concentrated than that of the rectangular BW sets; however, the total vortex energy is slightly smaller owing to the narrower vortex area range.