Experimental Study on the Effects of A Breakwater on Wave Field Characteristics

Studies on the possible effects of a detached breakwater on the characteristics of the wavefield are carried out experimentally.A serpentine wave generator is used to generate both uni- andmulti-directional waves.Characteristics of the wave fields analyzed here include the wave fielddirectionality,and the probability distributions of surface elevations and of the wave heights.Owing to thepresence of the breakwater,waves outside the harbour are found to be reflected with,however,concen-trated energy within the harbour entrance.In general,wave heights can be approximated with a Rayleighdistribution,with occasional deviations from the theory.This occurs more frequently for waves with high-er peak frequency values than for those with lower values both for uni-and multi-directional waves.Sur-face elevations can be approximated with the Gaussian model.although the Edgeworth's form of the typeA Gram-Charlier series expansions would yield better fits.Wave directionality is found to have nodiscernible effects on