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Aquatic Procedia 4 (2015) 281 286

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WATER RESOURCES, COASTAL AND OCEAN

ENGINEERING (ICWRCOE 2015)

Hydrodynamic study of energy dissipation blocks on reduction

of wave run-up and wave reflection
1,2

G. Giridhar1, M.G. Muni Reddy,*

Department of Civil Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam-53003, India

Abstract

Coastal Hazards are physical phenomena that expose a coastal area to risk of property damage, loss of life and
environmental degradation. Rapid-onset hazards last over periods of minutes to several days and examples include
major cyclones accompanied by high waves and surges or tsunamis created by submarine earthquakes and
landslides. Slow-onset hazards develop incrementally over longer time periods and examples include erosion and
gradual inundation. A physical process such as wave run-up is very important with regard to the design of sloping
coastal structures. To assess the influence of surface roughness elements on a beach for reducing the wave run-up,
energy dissipation and extreme wave events. This helps in reducing the inundation by wave flooding during storms
and tsunamis. Results of the monochromatic waves on energy dissipation blocks of different configurations show a
considerable energy dissipation and corresponding reduction of wave run-up on the beach. Three different of
dissipation blocks i.e. Rectangular, Semi Circular and trapezoidal shapes were used in the present experimental
study. These dissipation blocks may be submerged or emerged during a tidal cycle. Keeping the dissipation block
height constant, water depth was varied to achieve three different relative block heights to simulate the tidal
fluctuations in the coastal environment. The experiments are carried out in the wave flume of 45m long, 1.2 m wide
and 1.2m deep in the Department of Civil Engineering, Andhra University College of Engineering (A),
Visakhapatnam, India. The dissipation blocks with three different spacings of 0.05m, 0.1m and 0.15m was fixed on
a sloping flume bed of 1: 35. The water depth can be varied from 0.25 m to 0.80 m.
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-reviewunder
under
responsibility
of organizing
committee
of ICWRCOE
Peer-review
responsibility
of organizing
committee
of ICWRCOE
2015 2015.
Keywords: Energy dissipation blocks; wave run-up, wave reflection.

Corresponding Author: +91 9494572898

E-mail address :munireddy9@rediff.com

2214-241X 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of ICWRCOE 2015
doi:10.1016/j.aqpro.2015.02.038

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1. Introduction
Coastal areas have been attractive settling grounds for human population as they provided abundant marine
resources and possibilities for trade and transport. The characteristics of coastal environments, however, pose some
great challenges to human habitation. Coastal hazard management has become an increasingly important aspect of
coastal planning in order to improve the resilience of society to coastal hazards. Possible management options
include hard engineering structures, soft protection measures, various accommodation approaches as well as a
managed retreat from the coastline. For addressing coastal hazards, it is also important to have early warning
systems and emergency management plans in place to be able to address sudden and potential disastrous hazards.
A major problem which face the development in these regions is how we can protect the coastal area, harbours
and marines by using the best methods, which have negative effects on the adjacent and neighbouring shores,
moreover could be environmentally friendly as well as, it should be less expensive as possible.
In fact, there are many types of coastal protection structures such as artificial beach nourishment, breakwaters,
jetties, seawalls, artificial headlands and groins. Many types of breakwaters can be used such as the main breakwater
(Rubble mound breakwater), massive vertical face breakwaters (block type, caisson type, and cellular type),
composite breakwaters (vertical super structure of plain concrete blocks or caissons resting on a large foundation of
rubble mound), and flexible breakwaters (row of contact piles or sheet piles). The previous types are fully protection
breakwaters and the others are partial protection breakwaters such as (floating types, submerged types, detached
wall types and permeable breakwaters like screen types, slotted vertical barriers, perforated caissons, array of
closely spaced pipe breakwaters, pile supported vertical wall breakwater or skirt breakwater. All these protection
works will dissipate energy and wave reflection (Barbara Zanuttigh and Vander Meer.2008, Postma, G.M, 1989))
and wave run-up (Seelig, W.N. and Ahrens, J.P, 1981)). Energy dissipation can be achieved by roughened surfaces
like dissipation blocks (Vander Meer and Stam,1992; Pagliara, S. et al, 2008 ). In the present study energy reduction
is achieved by placing energy dissipation blocks on a ramp for reduction of wave run-up and wave reflection.
In the present study, water wave interaction with porous and non-porous energy dissipating structures are
experimentally studied and analyzed for different cross sections. The wave reflection and wave run-up were
calculated for different models and average of wave reflection and wave run-up are estimated presented in this
paper.
2. Methodology
The present experimental investigations were carried out to study the energy dissipation three structural
configurations (i) Square blocks (SB) (ii) Semi-circular porous (SCP) and non-porous (SC) sections and (iii)
Trapezoidal sections (TS) under the action of regular waves.
The design of the experiments starts from the selection of testing facility, fabrication of models, selection of
material of blocks, semi-circular and trapezoidal sections, selection of instrumentation and data acquisition system.
The data collection was followed by analyses of measured physical quantities to understand the phenomenon under
investigation. The scheme of experiments is measuring the wave run-up, wave reflection for different water depths
(d), wave heights (H) and periods (T) of regular waves.
2.1 Test Facility
The experiments are carried out in the wave flume of 45m long, 1.2 m wide and 1.2m deep in the Department of
Civil Engineering, Andhra University College of Engineering (A), Visakhapatnam, India. The flume is capable of
generating regular waves of different amplitudes and frequencies. A sloping flume bed of 1: 35 was prepared with
galvanized iron sheets and slotted angle frames, which allows the adjustment of different bed slopes. To measure the
wave elevations, three wave gauges were placed on the seaward of the model one wave gauge was positioned on the
model to measure the wave run-up. A schematic diagram of wave flume, seawall model, breakwater, force balance
and wave probes is presented in Fig.1.

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wave paddle

45m

1 2m

1.18m

wp

2m

Plan

Wave absorber

wave probes
Wave maker

Run up meter

Trolley

1 : 35

Sectional view

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of experimental set-up of square type energy dissipation sections (not to scale)
After processing the data obtained from the tests the results were presented in the form of graphs represented by
different dimensionless parameters. These graphs were explained elaborately relating it to its physical phenomena in
the real field situations and their physical significance. These graphs also help the coastal engineers and designers in
selecting a particular physical parameter under a given range of environmental and structural conditions.
The data collected was converted to physical variables by using the corresponding calibration coefficients. The
raw data was analyzed in time domain to get a clear understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. The data
acquisition was done with a sampling frequency of 40 Hz and the length of the record was for 100sec. The force and
the wave elevation were acquired simultaneously through a LABVIEW and DAQ interfaced with personal computer.
The arrival time of wave at the model depends on the wave frequency and water depth. The time history was viewed
on the monitor to verify the trend in its variation based on which the starting and ending points of the time series for
analysis were determined. Sufficient time gap was allowed between successive runs to restore calm water condition
in the wave flume.
The wave height and wave periods were obtained by analyzing the measured time histories of wave surface
elevation using threshold-crossing analysis (Chakrabarti, 1985). The threshold crossing option is a generalization of
the classical zero-crossing analysis. For a pre-defined reference level, the input time series channel was divided into
events, each of which was defined by the time series value crossing the reference level in upward direction. For each
event, the peak-peak value, the minimum - maximum values and the duration are determined, and stored in a time
series file.
The time series of the different parameters stated earlier were viewed to pick up the part of time series with
regular trend by omitting the transient part. The regular time series were then subjected to threshold crossing
analysis to get the mean amplitude of the time history. The mean of amplitude of measured hydrodynamic forces
were obtained using the above procedure for each test run.
In order to separate the incident and reflected wave heights from the structure, several methods have been
proposed to obtain the reflection coefficient of regular waves over breakwaters. A method proposed by Dean and
Dalrymple (1991) involves traversing one wave probe in the direction of the wave propagation to measure the
maximum Hmax and minimum Hmin wave heights of the composite wave field. The values of Hmax and Hmin

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correspond to wave heights at a quasi-antinode and node respectively, of the corresponding composite wave system.
The incident wave height H was calculated as the average of Hmax and Hmin, and reflection wave height Hr was
calculated as half the difference between Hmax and Hmin. Then the reflection coefficient (Kr) was estimated as the
ratio of reflected wave height Hr to incident wave height H. Conventionally reflection and wave run-up is presented
with surf similarity parameter (Battjes. J.A, 1974)
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Reflection Coefficient Kr
3.1.1 Variation of Reflection Coefficient (kr)
Fig.2 shows the variation of reflection coefficient with surf similarity parameter for square blocks of different
spacings. Reflection coefficient decreases with increase of surf similarity parameter ([). It was observed that the
average reflection coefficient for regular spacings is 0.37 and 0.47 for zig-zag spacing. It also observed that the
reflection coefficient increases with d/L. It may be concluded that long period waves results into less reflection than
the short period waves. In this figure water depth was kept constant and studied for different wave periods.
Variation of reflection coefficient with surf similarity parameter for semi-circular porous (SCP) and non-porous
(SC) sections is shown in Fig.3. It was observed that the average coefficient for non-porous semi-circular barrier is
0.23 and 0.32 for porous semicircular barrier. Similarly, variation of reflection coefficient with [ for trapezoidal nonporous section is presented in Fig.4. The average coefficient for non-porous trapezoidal barrier is 0.44.

Fig.2. Variation of Reflection with surf similarity

parameter [ for square blocks of different spacings.

Fig.3. Variation of Reflection with surf similarity

parameter [ for semi-circular porous (SCP) and nonporous (SC).

3.2 Wave Run-up (Ru/H)

3.2.1 Variation of wave run-up
The performance of energy dissipation blocks, porous and non-porous structures is studied by examining the
wave run-up (Ru/H). It was observed that the average wave run-up (Ru/H) for regular spacings of square blocks is
0.74 and 0.89 for zig-zag spacing (Fig.5). It also observed that the wave run-up (Ru/H) increases with d/L. It may be
concluded that long period waves results into less wave run-up (Ru/H) than the short period waves.

G. Giridhar and M.G. Muni Reddy / Aquatic Procedia 4 (2015) 281 286

Fig.4. Comparison of Reflection with surf similarity

parameter [ for three different energy dissipation
sections.

Fig.5. Variation of Run-up with surf similarity

parameter [ for square blocks of different spacings.

It was observed that the average wave run-up for non-porous semi-circular barrier is 0.79 and 0.46 for porous
semi-circular barrier (Fig.6). It also observed that the wave run-up (Ru/H) increases with d/L. It may be concluded
that long period waves results into less wave run-up (Ru/H) than the short period waves. Fig.7 shows the variation of
run-up for three different sections and empirical formula for the wave run-up.

Fig.6. Variation of Run-up with surf similarity

parameter [ for semi-circular porous (SCP) and
non- porous (SC).

Fig.7. Variation of Run-up with surf similarity

parameter [ for three different energy dissipation
sections.

4. Conclusions
Wave reflection with surf similarity parameter is plotted and found that the average value of wave reflection for
non-porous trapezoidal sections, square blocks and semi-circular sections are 0.44, 0.37 and 0.23 respectively.
Wave run-up with surf similarity parameter is plotted and found that the average value of wave run-up for nonporous trapezoidal sections, square blocks and semi-circular sections are 3.27, 0.74 and 0.74 respectively.

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5. References
Barbara Zanuttigh and Jentsje W. Vander Meer.(2008). Wave reflection from coastal structures in design conditions. Jl. Coastal Engineering,
article in press.
Battjes, J.A. (1974): Surf Similarity Parameter. Proc. Int. Conf. Coastal Eng., Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 466-477.
Chakrabarthi, S (1985) Hydrodynamics of offshore structures. Henry ling Ltd, Dorechester, London (2nd edition).
Dean. R.G and Darlymple, R.A (1991) Water wave mechanics for engineers and scientists, World Scientific, River Edge, N.J
Pagliara, S., Das, R. and Palermo M. (2008). Energy dissipation on submerged block ramps. J. Irr. Drain. Engng., 134(4), 527-532.
Postma, G.M. (1989). Wave reflection from rock slopes under random wave attack. M.Sc. thesis, Delft University of Technology, Delft,
Netherlands.
Seelig, W.N.and Ahrens, J.P. (1981). Estimation of wave reflection and energy dissipation coefficients for beaches, revetments, and breakwaters.
CERC, Technical Paper, No. 81/1, pp. 41, Fort Belvoir.
Vander Meer and Stam,(1992). Wave Run-up on smooth and rock slopes of coastal structures. Journal of waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean
Engineering, ASCE,118(5), pp.534-550.