WAVE INTERCEPTION BY SEA-BALLOON BREAKWATER

[摘要] When a submerged, flexible bag is filled with air about 60~T0 % of its full volume ( it is called " sea-balloon " ), it has a stable shape with vertical axis of symmetry, on which several vertical wrinkles appear with folds of membrane. If two or more such sea-balloons are arranged to the direction of wave travel and connected pneumatically, balloons are deformed periodically and the air flows reciprocally in connecting pipe, following to the fluid pressure fluctuation due to incident waves. Such a system of sea-balloon intercepts incident waves effectively ( it is called " sea-balloon breakwater "). The wave interception by the breakwater is analyzed numerically by three-dimensional boundary integral method, assuming that the fluid motions both in- and out-side of the balloon are potential and that the tension in balloon membrane is proportional to the apparent elongation of membrane with virtual elastic constant. After analysis and experiments, it is made clear that in relatively long waves the incident wave is canceled by the radiation wave which is generated by volumetric change of sea-balloons, being affected by airflow resistance in connecting pipe. In short waves, sea-balloons seem to behave like as rigid piles and the incident wave is absorbed by airflow resistance in pipe and by the turbulence of fluid motion around balloons. Moreover, the effect of gaps between sea-balloons along wave crest on wave interception for relatively long waves is expressed by a simple empirical formula, by which the transmission coefficients at various types of sea-balloon breakwater is easily estimated by twodimensional computation. For the improvement of wave interception effect and from the point of practical use, the effects of other sea-balloon breakwater system are investigated by two-dimensional computation and experiments.

[学科分类] 建筑学

[关键词] sea balloon;breakwater;balloon breakwater;wave interception