Wave diffraction of breakwaters in the presence of a coastline

An integral method is described which is capable of computing the diffraction field produced by waves incident on a breakwater connected to or placed near a straight coastline. Some simple configurations are studied: a straight breakwater protruding normally from the coast, a straight breakwater parallel to the coast, an ‘elbow-shaped’ breakwater with one end connected to the coast, a pair of straight breakwaters protruding normally from the coast and a series of three equal straight breakwaters parallel to the coast. In all cases the water depth is assumed to be constant, while both the breakwater and the coastline walls are supposed to be perfectly reflective. Within the limits of these hypotheses the method is rather general, because breakwaters of arbitrary shape can be considered.