Study of Environmental Friendly Porous Suspended Breakwater for the Egyptian Western North Coast

Abstract

A proposed new type of breakwater used for the Egyptian Western North Coast is presented and evaluated. The new breakwater consists of floating porous breakwater restrained by piles. The floating upper part is a vertical curtain of steel strips with consistence spaces in between. The piles are in two rows with spacing in the two directions. The spaces between the upper strips and between the piles allow for good transmission of water and sediment with a favorable dissipation of wave energy. This new type of breakwater is considered an excellent substitute for traditional breakwater in coastal areas with steep slopes of sea bed and quite small surf zone. The western north of Egyptian coast is an ideal location for the application of this new type of breakwater because of its sudden steep slope, wave breaking near the shore, strong rip currents and huge amount of sediment transport. Traditional shore protection structures along the western north coast of Egypt have yielded quite reverse side effects. One paralleled breakwater at Krir resort has been exploded and removed due to its complete failure in shore stabilization. A calibration has been performed to the numerical model using a set of laboratory results. A parametric study has been done in order to introduce the best configuration of the new model. Real shore and sea data for several locations were applied and theoretical analysis has shown that the suspended breakwater leads to energy dissipation of incident wave energy and provides a quite safe surf zone for swimmers and human activity with minimum changes to the shoreline. The breakwater can easily be adjusted after construction to meet any environmental changing conditions.
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