Multi-Slope Breakwater Structure for Wave Energy Return
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing breakwaters dissipate a significant amount of wave energy, causing destructive forces and air turbulence, and have a large environmental impact due to their fixed structure, altering coastlines and causing visual disruption.
Innovation Solution
A breakwater design with varying surface slopes and a chamber filled with water or air, redirecting waves to minimize breaking, allowing most energy to return to the sea, and using floating or fixed installations with minimal environmental disturbance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional breakwater structure is used to protect the coast from waves, then wave protection is achieved, but wave energy dissipation causes destructive forces and environmental impact
Solution Approach 1:
The breakwater is divided into multiple segments or modules that can be independently deployed and configured. Each segment features varying surface slopes designed to manipulate wave energy distribution, allowing the wave to progress through successive stages of energy reduction without concentrated dissipation at a single location.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of allowing waves to break and dissipate energy through turbulence and foam generation, the invention inverts the approach by using smooth, carefully angled surfaces that guide waves to reflect and return energy to the sea. The wave energy is redirected rather than absorbed, fundamentally changing from energy dissipation to energy return.
2Reliability
If a fixed breakwater structure is used to prevent wave action, then coastal protection is provided, but environmental impact increases due to current blockage and coastline configuration changes
Solution Approach 1:
The breakwater employs dynamic elements including movable segments and adjustable surface configurations that can adapt to different wave conditions and environmental requirements. This dynamic capability allows the structure to maintain protective function while minimizing environmental disruption by adjusting its interaction with currents and coastal processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potentially harmful effect of wave energy into a beneficial reflection pattern. By designing surfaces that guide waves to return to the sea rather than break against the structure, the wave energy that would otherwise cause erosion and damage is transformed into a protective reflective action that maintains coastal dynamics.
3Force
If a traditional breakwater design is used to dissipate wave energy, then wave intensity reduction is achieved, but visual impact and environmental disruption increase
Solution Approach 1:
Different sections of the breakwater feature locally optimized surface qualities with specific slope angles tailored to their position and function. The varying slopes create a graduated energy reduction system where each local section contributes to overall wave intensity reduction while maintaining aesthetic coherence and minimizing visual disruption from any single location.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves 85%-95% wave energy attenuation with minimal dissipation and reflection, reduces environmental impact, and allows easy relocation, providing a less invasive and visually minimal solution.
Implementation Method 1
the shape of the breakwater forces the wave to change direction, so that it enters horizontally, exits vertically and returns backwards
Implementation Method 2
the front surface has a slope such that the corresponding Iribarren number is greater than 2.3, the Iribarren number being defined according to the following formula: NI=P×T×1.25/√H
Implementation Method 3
some side floats and/or a rear float, which can be filled with water or air, with water to submerge them to the depth of use. and air can be injected inside, dislodging the water so that the breakwater floats and is easily towed by a tugboat to its location
Implementation Method 4
the shape of the breakwater according to the present invention increases the speed of the water in its interior, which produces a suction effect in the lower part, which affects the part of the wave that passes below the breakwater
Implementation Method 5
15%-30% (1/7-2/7) energy dissipated, with 15% (1/7) dissipated in breakwater and friction movements, and 15% (1/7) dissipated in movements of anchor chain
Data Source
AI summary
The breakwater according to the present invention is formed from a body on which the waves hit, and comprising a plurality of surfaces, each of which has a different inclination, said inclinations defining different angles with respect to the horizontal. The angle defined by each surface increases from the front surface to the rear surface, and the length of each surface is different, decreasing from the front surface to the rear surface. It allows to provide a breakwater in which most of the wave energy returns to the sea, so that only a small part is dissipated in the breakwater.