Application of a Series of Submerged Breakwaters to Coastal Protection

The feasibility of a plenary of breakwater is explored through a combined program of a prototype field test. The breakwater consists of a series of low height, shore-parallel bars which are placed just outside the surf-zone. The incident wave field is strongly reflected when the incident wave length is equal to twice the distance between adjacent bars. The breakwater acts to shelter the beach against storm wave attack and to build a tombolo sand deposit behind the breakwater. Numerical results indicated that the Bragg reflection breakwater concept may have considerable merit, however, many paper tests served to demonstrate the many practical difficulties in implementing the concept.