Abstract:
A breakwater comprised of an array of aligned perforated-wall (20,21) caissons (10) having a slab bottom (17) standing on a pervious rubble base (13) and anchored by its own weight incorporates exceptionally heavy ballasting (31) to ensure stability under attack by large waves, i.e. so that the ratio of maximum horizontal thrust force to net downward vertical force is below about 0.46. The immersed wall height is much reduced so that the slab bottom lies below mean sea level about 1.3 to 1.7 times the height of the greatest wave predicted, lessening costs of construction and siting. Efficient energy dissipation function is preserved by placement of augmenting mass below the height of the wave trough and by providing flow passages for jets directed by front wall ducts, avoiding increase of reflection coefficient. The mass may be a pervious rubble store, or a lower-grade concrete cast about horizontal duct pipes extending into or wholly through the chamber, or may be metal slabs supported on racks, or may be apertured fairing bodies carried on the front wall. Double-sided breakwaters on coasts where wave incidence occurs only at high tides incorporate a large proportion of ballast mass; when oriented as groins to protect a river mouth, the porting of an intermediate wall allows sands to migrate freely through without accretion. The rubble base comprises a core of gravel capped by larger rubble.
Abstract:
A disc-shaped marine structure (10) fabricated of steel and/or concrete, able to support useful loads as great as -125,000 tonnes is tethered to float stably in very deep water, with only minor response motions to waves of large amplitude and long period. A planar disc (15) of diameter about 135 up to 200 meters carries a centered primary buoyancy tank (16) of span 2.5 to 4.5 times the draft. The strongly braced sidewall (17) of the tank is spaced about 10 meters inward of the disc edge, defining one wall of an upwardly open confinement chamber 23. A thin cylindric outer shell wall (12) extending upwardly from the margin of the base has about 26 % to 35 % of its area comprised of tubular passages (21, 22) set radially, of length and diameter about one meter or more. Radial bracking frameworks (19) of 50 % aperturing interconnect the tank with the base disc and outer wall.
Abstract:
A breakwater comprised of an array of aligned perforated-wall (20,21) caissons (10) having a slab bottom (17) standing on a pervious rubble base (13) and anchored by its own weight incorporates exceptionally heavy ballasting (31) to ensure stability under attack by large waves, i.e. so that the ratio of maximum horizontal thrust force to net downward vertical force is below about 0.46. The immersed wall height is much reduced so that the slab bottom lies below mean sea level about 1.3 to 1.7 times the height of the greatest wave predicted, lessening costs of construction and siting. Efficient energy dissipation function is preserved by placement of augmenting mass below the height of the wave trough and by providing flow passages for jets directed by front wall ducts, avoiding increase of reflection coefficient. The mass may be a pervious rubble store, or a lower-grade concrete cast about horizontal duct pipes extending into or wholly through the chamber, or may be metal slabs supported on racks, or may be apertured fairing bodies carried on the front wall. Double-sided breakwaters on coasts where wave incidence occurs only at high tides incorporate a large proportion of ballast mass; when oriented as groins to protect a river mouth, the porting of an intermediate wall allows sands to migrate freely through without accretion. The rubble base comprises a core of gravel capped by larger rubble.