Ocean waves

Artificial reefs are coastal structures built to improve marine life and prevent beach erosion. During earlier days artificial reefs were constructed for recreational fishing using discarded scraps and waste materials. Later on, ships were scuttled for constructing artificial reefs. Artificial reefs dissipate the energy of the wave by making the wave break over the reef. The artificial reefs used for coastal protection are usually in submerged condition as this condition does not affect the aesthetic beauty of the beach. Wave transmission decides the efficiency of submerged-detached artificial reef in protecting the beach from the incoming waves. The efficiency of submerged detached coastal protection structures in protecting the beach is usually measured in terms of wave transmission coefficient.
The experimental investigation in the present study is carried out for submerged two-dimensional impermeable and permeable reefs for three water depths. The crest width of the reefs considered for the experimental studies are 60 cm and 20 cm. The permeable artificial reefs are made up of oyster shells in Nylon bags and biodegradable bags. The water levels considered for the study are 35 cm, 34 cm, and 33 cm. The effect of pore space between the oyster shells, crest width, water depth and wave parameters on the wave transmission coefficient for submerged impermeable and permeable artificial reefs are studied experimentally. The wave transmission coefficient is calculated for submerged impermeable and permeable reefs for different water levels and crest widths. Based on the results of the present experimental studies, it is logical to conclude that both submerged impermeable and permeable artificial reefs contribute to a significant extent to the attenuation of the incident wave.

This thesis describes an active sonar mounted to an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for measuring bubble clouds below breaking waves. A new development is the application of a very broadband sonar signal-processing scheme for the sonar. It is shown that using the active sonar on an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle provides reliable data and that good results are obtained by using a correlation processor. This thesis describes the optimum processing procedure for this application, resolution, and signal to noise constraints. Experimental results are given which show that bubbles can be imaged using an active sonar from an AUV platform. It was shown in the experimental results that the additive and the multiplicative processing produced good results for different situations. The multiplicative procedure was more consistent in the identification of bubble clouds than the additive process. One could see from the multiplicative images for the sea experiment where the bubble clouds were located while in the additive images one could only tell that a bubble cloud was identified.

Edge waves are the longshore periodic wave motions that are trapped at the edge of water bodies and play an important role in coastal hydrodynamics. This study presents the experimental investigation of the excitation of synchronous edge waves by waves normally and obliquely incident on a uniformly sloping beach. The experimental results show that the edge wave amplitude is linearly proportional to that of the reflected waves. For a perfectly reflecting beach, the conclusion is consistent with the Rockliff model. The experimental results also indicate that the ratio of the edge wave amplitude to reflected amplitude is linearly proportional to the approach angle.

A mathematical model, which accounts for the essential effects of environmental loads and vehicle characteristics from a fluid dynamics point of view, is developed to forecast the position of a craft drifting on the sea surface. The study is intended to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of drift and thus to provide a reliable model of drift prediction for use in future search and rescue mission. In the mathematical formulation, three degrees of freedom (surge, sway and yaw) of a craft are analyzed, since they play the most significant role in the drift prediction problem. The governing equations of motions are derived from Newton's law of dynamics and the environmental loads considered are the forces and moments exerted by wind, current and waves. The forces are analyzed in terms of drag, lift, and inertial forces. The moments are obtained by summing the contribution from the above forces. For the computation of the wind loads, the wind gradient as well as craft geometry is accounted for. In the current loads, profile, friction and propeller drags are included. The wave forces are computed by the use of wave spectral density. The formulation includes the effects of craft rotation as well as craft translation. A computer algorithm for the mathematical model is implemented to obtain the numerical result in the time domain. The model is verified by comparing its result with field measurements. For this purpose, a field test was carried out. The agreement between the computed and field measured drift path was excellent. The real time prediction capability of the model was ascertained.

In the present dissertation, the hydrodynamic and hydro-elastic characteristics of ship hull and plate vibrations are analyzed using theoretical and numerical methods. The wave forces are determined using a suite of methods which include the Froude-Krylov method for incident wave forces, Wagner's method and ABS rules for the slamming wave force, and numerical methods for nonlinear wave radiation forces. Finite difference methods are developed to determine the wave forced vibrations of ship hull plates which are modeled using a range of plate theories including nonlinear plate theory with and without material damping and orthotropic plate theory for stiffened hull plates. For small amplitude deformation of thin plates, a semi-theoretical superposition method is used to determine the free and forced vibrations. The transient ship hull vibration due to whipping is also analyzed using the finite difference method. Results, in the form of deformations and stress distributions, are obtained for a range of scantling and wave parameters to identify key parameters to consider in ship structural design.

The aim of this project is to identify the effect of wind on near-shore breaking waves. A breaking wave was created using a simulated beach slope configuration. Testing was done on two different beach slope configurations. The effect of offshore winds of varying speeds was considered. Waves of various frequencies and heights were considered. A parametric study was carried out. The experiments took place in the Hydrodynamics lab at FAU Boca Raton campus. The experimental data validates the knowledge we currently know about breaking waves. Offshore winds effect is known to increase the breaking height of a plunging wave, while also decreasing the breaking water depth, causing the wave to break further inland. Offshore winds cause spilling waves to react more like plunging waves, therefore increasing the height of the spilling wave while consequently decreasing the breaking water depth.