Open AccessDIFFRACTION OF WIND GENERATED WATER WAVES
Author(s) -
Ismail E. Mobarek,
Robert L. Wiegel
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
proceedings of conference on coastal engineering/proceedings of ... conference on coastal engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2156-1028
pISSN - 0589-087X
DOI - 10.9753/icce.v10.12
Subject(s) - diffraction , breakwater , spectral line , wind wave , acoustics , physics , optics , computational physics , geology , geotechnical engineering , astronomy , thermodynamics
In designing a harbor an engineer must consider the diffraction of waves. In most studies, only uniform periodic waves coming from a single direction are treated. However, wind generated waves in the ocean are two dimensional, and the diffraction of waves due to a breakwater should be treated with this in mind. As methods of measuring the two-dimensional spectra of waves were developed recently, it was decided to determine whether or not diffraction theory could be applied with sufficient accuracy for two-dimensional wave spectra. The results of a laboratory study presented herein show that a knowledge of the two-dimensional spectra can be used together with diffraction theory to predict the energy spectra of waves in the lee of a breakwater within an accuracy that is probably acceptable for many engineering problems.