Spectral Water Wave Dissipation by Biomimetic Soft Structure

Coastal protection solutions can be categorised as grey, hybrid or natural. Grey infrastructure includes artificial structures like dykes. Natural habitats like seagrasses are considered natural protection infrastructure. Hybrid solutions combine both natural and grey infrastructure. Evidence suggests that grey solutions can negatively impact the environment, while natural habitats prevent flooding without such adverse effects and provide many ecosystem services. New types of protective solutions, called biomimetic solutions, are inspired by natural habitats and reproduce their features using artificial materials. Few studies have been conducted on these new approaches. This study aims to quantify wave dissipation observed in situ above a biomimetic solution inspired by kelps, known for their wave-dampening properties. The solution was deployed in a full water column near Palavas-les-Flots in southern France. A one-month in situ experiment showed that the biomimetic solution dissipates around 10% of total wave energy on average, whatever the meteo-marine conditions. Wave energy dissipation is frequency-dependent: short waves are dissipated, while low-frequency energy increases. An anti-dissipative effect occurs for forcing conditions with frequencies close to the eigen mode linked to the biomimetic solution’s geometry, suggesting that resonance should be considered in designing future biomimetic protection solutions.