Experimental study of the working principal and efficiency of a superposed inclined planes wave absorber

The swell reflection leads to problems in full scale conditions, shipping near seawalls and inside harbors, and for experiments in basins or channels, as well. Consequently, many studies were carried out to define wave absorbers with best efficiency. In this paper, the three main working principals of the wave absorbers, breaking waves, viscous dissipation resonating mechanism, are detailed to see how it is possible to enhance the efficiency. Through this analysis, a wave absorber made up of several superposed inclined planes in front of a wall is defined and its working principal is explained. Through experiments, it is shown that in spite of its short size its efficiency is one of the best compared to the more classical wave absorbers. Moreover, this superposed inclined planes wave absorber presents two main advantages: its short size and the possibility to be adjusted to the swell caracteristics, which make it interesting to be used in real scale and in laboratory environment, as well.