Mariano Buccino

Large-scale experiments on the behaviour of low crested and submerged breakwaters in presence of broken waves

Functional design of low crested breakwaters requires an accurate prediction of wave transmission and set up in the protected areas. Nevertheless, commonly used formulae do not appear to be reliable enough, especially for structures located in shallow waters. The paper describes results from large-scale model tests conducted on rubble mound breakwaters exposed to breaking waves. Tests were carried out at the “Grosser WellenKanal” of Hannover, Germany. The model dimension, near to prototype, allowed minimizing scale effects connected to wave breaking. Existing formulas on wave transmission have been verified and influence of crest width and breaker index have been highlighted. Moreover the wave set-up behind the structure has been analysed showing the importance of momentum release of breaking waves for submerged breakwaters and of the mass balance for low crested ones. 8.

Wave Transmission behind Low-Crested Structures

This paper describes how, with the European Union funded project DELOS, a wide database containing more than 2000 2D laboratory tests on wave transmission behind low created structures has been collected. The data has been reanalyzed in order to test and improve the reliability of the existing design formulae by improving the description of the dependency of wave transmission on structural and hydraulic parameters. Also the change of wave energy spectra has been analyzed and related to governing parameters.

Predicting wave transmission past Reef Ball™ submerged breakwaters

ABSTRACT Buccino, M., Del Vita, I., and Calabrese, M., 2013. Predicting wave transmission past Reef BallTM submerged breakwaters Reef Balls™ are hemispherical shaped artificial units, made of neutral concrete and characterized by a particular surface textures to promote the growth of marine life. They can be arranged in different layouts to form submerged breakwaters, even of significant width. Although structures in Reef Balls have been employed for the protection of a number of top quality sites, no well-established design tool exists for the prediction of wave transmission behind them. In this article a set of equations is provided, based on the so-called “Conceptual Approach” originally developed for ordinary structures. The new expressions proved to fit properly more than 300 experimental data, coming from physical model tests conducted at two different American laboratories: Queens University Coastal Engineering Research Laboratory (Canada) and the USACE Engineering Research and Development Center Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (USA).

Engineering Modeling of Wave Transmission of Reef Balls

AbstractReef Balls are hemispherical concrete units, which feature hydrogen ion concentration neutralized concrete and specialized surface textures to promote the growth of marine life. Reef Balls can be arranged in different layouts to form submerged breakwaters, even of significant width. Although structures formed with Reef Balls have been used for the protection of several top-quality sites, no well-established design tool exists for the prediction of wave transmission behind them. In this study, a set of equations were proposed based on the conceptual approach. The expressions were validated by more than 300 experimental data from physical model tests conducted at two different laboratories. The new predictive model showed a number of encouraging properties, such as a high determination index, R2, normality of the residuals, and a constant standard error with respect to the structure layout.

A study of wave reflection based on the maximum wave momentum flux approach

ABSTRACT Based on the maximum wave momentum flux approach (MFA) originally proposed by Hughes, simple predictive equations for the reflection coefficient of sloping coastal structures have been developed. The design tools permit either estimating the “bulk” reflection coefficient or reconstructing the entire reflected wave spectrum. A comparison with nearly 1,600 results of physical model studies carried out in different laboratories around the world indicated the new method to be rather effective, especially in the case of permeable structures.