Application of a Piston-Type Absorbing Wavemaker to Irregular Wave Experiments

It is difficult to control a conventional wavemaker so as to generate incident waves with a prescribed spectrum when multiple reflection takes place between the highly reflective structure and wave paddle. To maintain better controlled wave conditions in a channel, a piston-type absorbing wavemaker with a front-mounted wave gauge has been developed. Circuit design for this wavemaker is presented as well as the principle of reflected wave absorption. Since the wavemaker without an absorption loop behaves as a conventional wavemaker, the influence of reflected waves on wave generation could be investigated through irregular wave experiments with and without the absorption loop.