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Diffraction of water waves by porous breakwaters is studied based on the linear potential wave theory. The formulation of the problem includes a newly derived relation for the fluid motion through thin porous structures in addition to the conventional governing equation and boundary conditions for small-amplitude waves in ideal fluids. The porous boundary condition, indirectly verified by collected experimental data, is obtained by assuming that the flow within the porous medium is governed by a convection-neglected and porous-effect-modeled Euler equation. A vertically two-dimensional problem with long-crested waves propagating in the normal direction of an infinite porous wall is first solved and the solution is compared with available experimental data. The wave diffraction by a semiinfinite porous wall is then studied by the boundary-layer method, in which the outer approximation is formulated by virtue of the reduced two-dimensional solution. It is demonstrated that neglect of the inertial effect of the porous medium leads to an underestimate of the functional performance of a porous breakwater.
Xiping Yu (Wed,) studied this question.