Comparative Study of Wave Damping on Vertical Wall and Split Chamber Breakwater

Wave damping refers to the reduction of wave energy as it interacts with coastal structures, which plays a crucial role in minimizing potential damage such as shoreline erosion, overtopping, and structural stress on coastal defenses.Coastal protection structures are designed to dissipate wave energy, thereby reducing its impact on shorelines and minimizing the risks of erosion and structural damage.Coastal protection structures may reduce the potential damage caused by wave forces in coastal areas by absorbing wave energy.The Split Chamber is an additional structure comprising multiple chambers installed on the seaward face of a vertical breakwater, designed to enhance wave energy dissipation.This study employs physical modeling to assess the effectiveness of the Split Chamber addition in reducing wave energy, by comparing wave heights in front of a vertical breakwater with and without the Split Chamber.Experimental studies were conducted with sinusoidal regular waves (period T=2.4 s; 3.2 s and height H=4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm) and irregular waves (period T=2.4 s; 3.2 s and significant wave height Hs=4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm) in a laboratory scale.Physical modeling results show that the Split Chamber performs greater damping to shorter wave periods for both regular and irregular waves (20.68% for regular wave T=2.4s, 9.73% for regular wave T=3.2 s, 32.06% for irregular wave T=2.4 s, and 24.83% for irregular wave T=3.2 s).Regarding the reflection coefficient (Cr), the split chamber shows a potential reduction of about 10 to 40% for regular waves and about 85% to 100% for irregular waves in comparison to the vertical wall breakwater.The Split Chamber structure can dissipate wave energy by up to 20% at a wave period of 3.2 s.