Investigation of the dissipation characteristics of upright wave absorbing seawall

In this study, a new type of wave absorbing seawall is introduced to protect the shoreline against wave induced erosion. The basic design of seawall’s blocks consists of a cubic chamber and back impermeable semicircular wall. The wave energy dissipation coefficient (Kd) was measured to determine the efficiency of the designed structure using physical model. Random waves in wide range of wave heights and periods, with variety of water depth were carried out for the experimental tests. It was observed that the new seawall has significant performance than the rigid seawall in increasing the dissipation of wave energy. The dissipation coefficient for the new seawalls ranges from 0.34 – 0.85, whereas for the rigid wall, it is found to be less than 0.45. In addition, it was found that the wave energy dissipation coefficient increases with the increasing of the wave steepness (Hs/Lp), the relative water depth (d/Lp). Using multiple regression analysis on the measured data in SPSS software, empirical equations have been proposed to predict the energy dissipation coefficient.