Analytical Model of Wave Loads and Motion Responses for a Floating Breakwater System with Attached Dual Porous Side Walls

A set of two-dimensional analytical solutions considering the effects of diffraction and radiation are presented in this study to investigate the hydrodynamic interaction between an incident linear wave and a proposed floating breakwater system consisting of a rectangular-shaped body and two attached vertical side porous walls in an infinite fluid domain with finite water depth. The Matched Eigenfunction Expansion Method (MEEM) for multiple fluid domains is applied to derive theoretically the velocity potentials and associated unknown coefficients for wave diffraction and body motion induced radiation in each subdomain. Also, the exciting forces, as well as the added mass and damping coefficients for the floating breakwater system under the surge, heave, and pitching motions, are formulated. The displacements of breakwater motions are determined by solving the equation of motion. As a verification of the analytical model, the present solutions of the limiting cases in terms of exciting forces, moments, added masses, and damping coefficients are found to be well matched with other published numerical results. Additionally, the hydrodynamic performances and the dynamic responses in terms of Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) of the proposed floating breakwater system are evaluated versus various dimensionless variables, such as wavelength and porous-effect parameter. The results show that the attached porous walls with selected porous properties are observed to have the advantages of reducing wave impacts on the floating breakwater system and at the same time its dynamic responses are also noticeably improved.