Effects of discontinuous submerged breakwater on water surface elevation

Submerged breakwaters are used to prevent shore line erosion and sediment transportation. One of their advantages is low visual impact. In this paper, the effects of discontinuous submerged breakwaters over water surface elevation was numerically studied considering the extended Boussinesq equations as governing equations using MIKE21 software. The result of discontinuous breakwater was compared with a beach without breakwater. The results showed that the gap dramatically effects on surface elevation from shore line to offshore. It is also evident from results that with approaching the center of the gap, fluctuation of surface elevation is generated. It is because of passing longshore currents towards offshore through the gap which leads to an increase in sediment transportation rate. Nevertheless, transferring water mass from breakwater gap results in powerful rip currents leading to high changes on longshore wave profile.