Numerical investigation on combined wave damping effect of pneumatic breakwater and submerged breakwater

This paper attempts to combine the pneumatic breakwater and submerged breakwater to increase the effectiveness of wave damping for long-period waves. A series of physical experiments concerning pneumatic breakwater, submerged breakwater and their joint breakwater was conducted and used to validate a mathematical model based on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, the RNG k-ε turbulence model and the VOF method. In addition, the mathematical model was used to investigate the wave transmission coefficients of three breakwaters. The nonlinear wave propagation behaviors and the energy transfer from lower frequencies to higher frequencies after the submerged breakwater were investigated in detail. Furthermore, an optimal arrangement between pneumatic breakwater and submerged breakwater was obtained for damping longer-period waves that cannot be damped effectively by the pneumatic breakwater alone. In addition, the reason for the appearance of the combination effect is that part of the energy of the transmitted waves over the submerged breakwater transfers to shorter-period waves. Finally, the impact of the joint breakwater on the wave field during wave propagation process was investigated.