Interaction of non-breaking regular waves with a periodic array of artificial porous bars

A computational model is developed to investigate the wave damping characteristics of a periodic array of porous bars. The transmission and reflection coefficients as well as the wave energy dissipation are evaluated relating to the physical properties and geometric factors of bars. It is shown that the porosity, number, width and height of bars all play important roles in the wave damping characteristics, compared to other factors such as the intrinsic permeability. It is observed that like impermeable bars, permeable bars display Bragg phenomenon. However, Bragg reflection produced by permeable bars is smaller than that by impermeable bars. Permeable bars reflect smaller waves, transmit smaller waves and dissipate more wave energy. It is indicated that if the porosity increases, both the reflection and transmission coefficients decrease and more wave energy is dissipated. Further, it is found that the porosity controls the magnitude, but not the oscillation frequency of the reflection coefficient, which depends only on the number of bars.