Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096

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Coastal Engineering
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / c o a s t a l e n g

Closed-form solutions for wave reflection and transmission by vertical slotted barrier
Kyung-Duck Suh a,⁎, Chang-Hwan Ji a, Bum Hyoung Kim b
a
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151–744, Republic of Korea
b
Hyundai Development Company Engineering & Construction, 160 Samsung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135–881, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, we introduce the closed-form solution developed by Kim in 1998 for calculating the reflection
Received 15 November 2010 and transmission coefficients of a vertical slotted barrier, which is not well known because it is presented in
Received in revised form 21 February 2011 his thesis. It is then compared with other closed-form solutions developed by different authors. It is shown
Accepted 21 June 2011
that all the solutions give a wrong result for long waves, i.e., large reflection and small transmission. It is also
Available online 26 July 2011
shown that the inertia term is important for intermediate-depth and deep water waves so that the solution
Keywords:
including the inertial effect gives better prediction than those neglecting the inertial effect. The accuracy of the
Breakwaters existing closed-form solutions is not satisfactory, even though they have been developed based on
Closed-form solution fundamental fluid mechanics principles. We propose a hybrid solution several parameters of which are based
Perforated-wall on empirical formulas. The hybrid solution better predicts the reflection and transmission coefficients than
Wave reflection the existing solutions. Moreover, it gives a correct result, i.e., small reflection and large transmission, for long
Wave transmission waves.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Gravity-type breakwaters using rubble mound or vertical caissons
are widely used to protect harbors from waves. In certain situations,
perforated-wall breakwaters made of concrete units or timbers are
used, especially in small craft harbors and marinas. The simplest
perforated-wall breakwater may be a curtain wall breakwater
(sometimes called wave screen or skirt breakwater), which consists
of a vertical wall extending from the water surface to some distance
above the seabed. A slotted curtain wall breakwater was also
proposed by Isaacson et al. (1998). Another simple perforated-wall
breakwater may be a vertical slotted barrier, which consists of an
array of vertical piles in a row. Recently, a curtain-wall-pile
breakwater was proposed by Suh et al. (2006, 2007), the upper part
of which is a curtain wall and the lower part consisting of an array of
vertical piles. The main advantages of the perforated-wall breakwa-
ters are the saving in construction cost in relatively deep water and
less disturbance to coastal environments such as water circulation,
littoral drift, and fish passage.
In this study, we deal with the second type of perforated-wall
breakwater, i.e. a vertical slotted barrier. The piles can be either
circular or rectangular, but we only deal with the rectangular piles.
The closely spaced piles induce energy dissipation due to the viscous
eddies formed by the flow through the slots. The functional efficiency
of the slotted barrier is evaluated by examining the reflection and
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 82 2 880 8760.
E-mail address: kdsuh@snu.ac.kr (K.-D. Suh).
transmission of the waves from the barrier. In order to examine the
wave reflection and transmission characteristics of the barrier,
hydraulic model tests have been used (Cho and Kim 2002; Hagiwara
1984; Huang 2007a, 2007b; Isaacson et al. 1998; Kakuno and Liu
1993; Kojima et al. 1988; Kriebel 1992; Li et al. 2006; Suh et al. 2011).
Efforts towards developing mathematical models for predicting the
reflection and transmission coefficients have also been made (Bennett
et al. 1992; Hagiwara 1984; Kakuno and Liu 1993). On the other hand,
closed-form solutions for the reflection and transmission coefficients
have also been proposed (Huang 2007b; Kim 1998; Kriebel 1992; Mei
1989). For long waves, Mei (1989) derived a closed-form solution by
linearizing the nonlinear convective acceleration term and neglecting
the inertia term in the equation of motion. Several authors extended
the Mei's work to derive solutions for intermediate-depth water
waves (e.g., Huang 2007b; Kim 1998; Kriebel 1992). Yu (1995) also
presented a closed-form solution, but in his solution several co-
efficients are not calculated using physical quantities but are assumed
to be given. Therefore, his solution is not investigated in this study.
Suh et al. (2006) used the energy dissipation coefficient of Kim
(1998), which is one of the coefficients used in his solution and was
derived by linearizing the nonlinear convective acceleration term in
the equation of motion. Suh et al. (2006) found that using the Kim's
energy dissipation coefficient in their mathematical model for
calculating wave reflection and transmission by a curtain-wall-pile
breakwater gives a wrong result for long waves, i.e., large reflection
and small transmission. These trends for long waves are definitely
wrong because in the limit of long waves the perforated-wall
breakwater is invisible to waves so that large transmission and
small reflection should occur. To find the reason for this wrongness

0378-3839/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2011.06.001
1090 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096

was the motivation to start the present study. However, without Assuming incompressible fluid and irrotational flow motion, the
finding the reason, we merely became to know that all the above- velocity potential Φ(x, y, z, t) for the monochromatic wave propagat-
mentioned solutions including the Mei's one that was derived for long ing over the constant water depth h with the angular frequency ω and
waves give wrong results for long waves. This is reported in this incident wave height Hi can be expressed as
paper.

The Kim's (1998) solution includes the effect of the inertia term, igHi cosh½kðh + zÞ
Φðx; y; z; t Þ = Re − ϕðx; yÞ expð−iωt Þ ð1Þ
which was neglected in others' solutions. In this study, it will be 2ω coshðkhÞ
shown that the inertia term is important for intermediate-depth or
deep water waves. Since Kim's (1998) doctoral thesis is not easy to where the symbol Re represents thepreal
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi part of a complex value, g is
access and his solution contains the effect of the inertia term, its the gravitational acceleration, i = −1, and k is the wave number
derivation is summarized in this paper. For other solutions of which satisfies the dispersion relationship:
relatively easy accessibility, only their final forms will be presented.
The above-mentioned solutions are compared with the experi- 2
ω = gk tanhðkhÞ ð2Þ
mental data of many different authors. Unfortunately, none of them
gives satisfactory concurrence with the experimental data even Substituting the velocity potential into the Laplace equation, we
though they were derived based on solid fluid mechanics principles. obtain the Helmholtz equation for the horizontal variation of the
Therefore, a hybrid solution is proposed in this study, in which the velocity potential ϕ(x, y):
energy dissipation coefficient in the Kim's (1998) solution is
expressed in terms of the empirical friction coefficient of Suh et al. ∂2 ϕ ∂2 ϕ 2
(2011) and some other known variables. Its concurrence with the + +k ϕ=0 ð3Þ
∂x2 ∂y2
experimental data is shown to be much better than other solutions.
In the following section, the derivation of the solution of Kim
(1998) is summarized. The next section compares the behaviors of Neglecting the non-propagating evanescent wave modes which
different solutions with respect to relative depth and their concur- are important only in the region near the barrier, the solutions in each
rence with the experimental data. A hybrid solution is then proposed region of the fluid domain may be constructed as
and is compared with the experimental data. Finally major conclu-  
ikx cosθ −ikx cosθ iky sinθ
sions are given. ϕ1 ðx; yÞ = e + Cr e e ; x≤0 ð4Þ

ikx cosθ iky sinθ

ϕ2 ðx; yÞ = Ct e e ; xN0 ð5Þ
2. Derivation of Kim (1998) solution

where Cr and Ct are the complex reflection and transmission

Let us consider an array of vertical piles sketched in Fig. 1, in which
coefficients, respectively.
h is the constant water depth in still water, b is the thickness of the
The potential ϕj(x, y) (j = 1, 2) must satisfy the matching condi-
wall, and θ is the incident wave angle. The distance between the
tions at the barrier at x = 0. First, the horizontal mass fluxes (or
centers of two neighboring piles is denoted as 2A and the width of the
indirectly horizontal velocities) in the two regions must be same at
slit is 2a so that the porosity of the wall is defined as ε = a/A. The x-axis
the barrier:
and y-axis are taken to be normal and parallel, respectively, to the
crest line of the piles, and the vertical coordinate z is measured
∂ϕ1 ∂ϕ2
vertically upwards from the still water line. We divide the fluid = at x = 0 ð6Þ
∂x ∂x
domain into region 1 (x ≤ 0) and region 2 (x ≥ 0). In the following, the
numeric subscripts indicate the values in these regions.
Second, the dynamic equation denoting the continuity of pressure,
normal to the vertical planes separating the fluid region, is

p2 p1 f ∂u
− + u juj + ∫‘ d‘ = 0 at x = 0 ð7Þ
ρ ρ 2 ∂t

where p is the pressure, ρ is the density of water, u = εu0 is the

velocity away from the barrier, u0 is the velocity at the slot, and f is the
head loss coefficient given by
 2
1
f = −1 ð8Þ
εCc

where Cc is the empirical contraction coefficient, for which Mei et al.

(1974) suggested using the formula

2
Cc = 0:6 + 0:4ε ð9Þ

In Eq. (7), ‘ is the length of the jet flowing through the slot and
represents the inertial resistance at the barrier. Suh et al. (2002)
showed that the jet length ‘ is related to the blockage coefficient C by

Fig. 1. Definition sketch of a vertical slotted barrier: (upper) side view; (lower) top view. ‘ = 2C ð10Þ
 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096 1091

Flagg and Newman (1971) proposed the blockage coefficient as the equation of motion, Mei (1989) derived the reflection and
 
transmission coefficients as
b 1 2A 1 2 281 4
C= −1 + 1−logð4εÞ + ε + ε ð11Þ
2 ε π 3 180 ω U0
Cr = 1− ð20Þ
gk Hi = 2
for rectangular piles.
Expressing the non-linear friction term in Eq. (7) in a linear form U0
Ct = pffiffiffiffiffiffi ð21Þ
βu, and using the relationships p = ρ(∂ Φ/∂ t) and u = − ∂ Φ/∂ x, Eq. (7) ððHi = 2Þ = hÞ gh
can be written as
  where
iβ ∂ϕ1
ϕ2 = ϕ1 + +‘ at x = 0 ð12Þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ω ∂x Hi = 2 pffiffiffiffiffiffi 1 + 2α−1
U0 = gh ð22Þ
h α
Now, expressing the reflection and transmission coefficients as
Cr = a + ib and Ct = c + id, respectively, substituting them into Eqs. (4) 4 fHi = 2
α= ð23Þ
and (5), and using the matching conditions, i.e., Eqs. (6) and (12), a 3π h
system of linear equations in the unknowns a, b, c and d is obtained.
Solving the equations, we obtain the reflection and transmission with f given by Eq. (8).
coefficients as Kriebel (1992) proposed a solution similar to Mei (1989) for
conditions of arbitrary water depth as follows:
RðR + 2Þ + P 2 2P pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Cr = −i ð13Þ 1 + 4Tt −1
ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2 ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2 Cr = 1− ð24Þ
2Tt
2ðR + 2Þ 2P pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Ct = +i ð14Þ 1 + 4Tt −1
ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2 ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2 Ct = ð25Þ
2Tt
where P = ‘k cosθ and R = βk cos θ/ω.
In the preceding equations, the linearized friction coefficient β is where Tt is the transmission function which is equal to
still unknown. The expression for β is obtained using the Lorentz
f Hi sinhð2khÞ + 2kh
concept and integrating the wave power over the depth as Tt = ð26Þ
6 2π = k sinh2 ðkhÞ
0
∫−h 12 fu2 jujdz
β= ð15Þ with f given by Eq. (8). For the sake of comparison, the parameters
0
∫−h u2 dz used in each solution are listed in Table 1.
Fig. 2 compares the reflection and transmission coefficients
which equates the energy dissipation by means of the linear term to calculated by the formulas of Mei (1989), Kriebel (1992), and Kim
the non-linear dissipation by flow separation. Using u = u1 = Re (1998) as functions of kh. The Kim's solution without the inertial
(− ∂ Φ1/∂ x) and Eqs. (1), (4) and (13), we obtain effect is also shown. We used h = 2.4 m, b = 0.14 m, A = 0.0875 m,
a = 0.0175 m, and Hi/L = 0.03 where L is the wave length. Even though
cosh½kðz + hÞ cosθ the Mei's (1989) solution was developed for long waves, we apply it
u = ωHi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi cosψ ð16Þ
sinhðkhÞ to long to short waves to see how it behaves for intermediate-depth or
ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2
short waves. Later, its results are also used to examine the relative
where ψ is the phase of u. Substituting the preceding equation into importance between extension to short waves and inclusion of
Eq. (15) and using the approximation cos ψ| cos ψ| ≈ (8/3π)cos ψ, β is inertial effect of the Kim's (1998) solution. For long waves of kh less
obtained as than about 0.5, there is no difference among the solutions, but for
larger values of kh the difference increases with kh. The Mei's (1989)
8f 2 cosh2 ðkhÞ + 2 solution shows monotonic decrease and increase of Cr and Ct with kh,
β= H ω qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi cosθ ð17Þ while Cr and Ct of the Kim's (1998) solution bounce up and down,
9π i sinhð2khÞ + 2kh
ðR + 2Þ2 + P 2 respectively, as kh increases. The solutions of Kriebel (1992) and Kim
(1998) without the inertial effect become almost constant for large
Rearrangement of the preceding equation gives a quartic polynomial of values of kh. In view of the fact that longer waves must be less
β, which can be solved by the eigenvalue method (Press et al. 1992). reflected and more transmitted, the Kim's (1998) solution shows
If we neglect the inertial effect, i.e., letting P = 0 in Eqs. (13) and correct trend for relatively large values of kh. However, all the
(14), they are simplified to solutions give wrong results as kh approaches zero. In the limit of long
waves the barrier is invisible to waves so that complete transmission
R
Cr = ð18Þ and zero reflection should occur.
R+2
The solutions of Mei (1989) and Kim (1998), which show opposite
2 trend for larger values of kh, are compared with the experimental
Ct = ð19Þ
R+2
Table 1
which are the same as the solution of Huang (2007b) for a single
Parameters used in each solution.
slotted barrier.
Solution a A b h T Hi θ
3. Comparison among different solutions Kim (1998) ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Mei (1989) ○ ○ × ○ ○ ○ ×
Kriebel (1992) ○ ○ × ○ ○ ○ ×
Starting from the equations of continuity and motion of small-
hybrid ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ × ○
amplitude waves in shallow water and neglecting the inertia term in
1092 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096

a a 5
1

Hagiwara (1984)
Mei (1989)
Kojima et al. (1988)
Kriebel (1992)
Kakuno and Liu (1993)
0.8 Kim (1998) 4
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Kim (1998) w/o inertial effect
Cho and Kim (2002)
Huang (2007a,b)
Suh et al. (2010)

Cr_Mei/Cr_Meas
0.6 3
Cr

0.4 2

0.2 1

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
kh kh

b 1
b 5

Hagiwara (1984)
Kojima et al. (1988)
0.8 4 Kakuno and Liu (1993)
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Cho and Kim (2002)
Huang (2007a,b)
Suh et al. (2010)
Cr_Kim/Cr_Meas

0.6 3
Ct

0.4 2

Mei (1989)
0.2 1
Kriebel (1992)
Kim (1998)
Kim (1998) w/o inertial effect

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
kh kh
Fig. 2. Comparison of reflection and transmission coefficients calculated by various
Fig. 3. Normalized reflection coefficient versus kh: (a) Mei's (1989) solution; (b) Kim's
solutions as function of kh: (a) reflection coefficient; (b) transmission coefficient.
(1998) solution.

results of many different authors. For the solutions of Kriebel (1992)

and Kim (1998) without the inertial effect, without showing the
results, we just mention that they show intermediate behaviors
between the solutions of Mei (1989) and Kim (1998), as could be
inferred from Fig. 2. Fig. 3 shows the reflection coefficient versus kh.
We normalized the reflection coefficient with respect to the measured
value. Most of the data which are severely under-predicted by the
Mei's (1989) formula are better predicted by the Kim's (1998)
formula. One may wonder why the two solutions are so different even
in the range of kh smaller than 1.0 where the two solutions are almost
same according to Fig. 2. It should be noted that the two solutions can
be quite different even for small values of kh when the inertial effect is
significant. Fig. 4 shows the reflection coefficients calculated by
different formulas for an experimental condition of Kakuno and Liu
(1993) in which h = 0.5 m, b = 0.15 m, A = 0.1 m, a = 0.025 m, and Hi/
L = 0.01. Since the thickness of the barrier is so large that the inertial
effect is significant. In this case, the Kim's (1998) solution which
includes the inertial effect shows very different behavior from others
even for small values of kh. Fig. 5 shows the normalized transmission
coefficient versus kh. For wave transmission, some data which are
severely over-predicted by the Mei's (1989) formula are better
predicted by the Kim's (1998) formula again because of the inclusion
of inertial effect.
Figs. 3 and 5 indicate that the Kim's (1998) solution better predicts
the reflection and transmission coefficients than the Mei's (1989) one.
However, it is not clear whether the better prediction is owing to the
extension of the solution to deeper water or to the inclusion of inertial
effect. To investigate this, we plotted the normalized reflection and
transmission coefficients of the Kim's (1998) solution without the
inertial effect in Fig. 6. They are closer to the Kim's (1998) solution in
deep water, while they are closer to the Mei's (1989) solution in
 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096 1093

1 a
5

hagiwara (1984)
Kojima et al. (1988)
0.8
Kriebel (1992)
4
Kakuno and Liu (1993)
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Cho and Kim (2002)
Huang (2007a,b)
0.6

Ct_Mei/Ct_Meas
Suh et al. (2010)
3
Cr

0.4 Mei (1989)

Kriebel (1992) 2
Kim (1998)
Kim (1998) w/o inertial effect

0.2
1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
kh 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
kh
Fig. 4. Comparison of reflection coefficients calculated by various solutions as function
of kh for a different condition from Fig. 2.
b 5

intermediate-depth water. This indicates that the extension of the Hagiwara (1984)
solution to deeper water is more important in deep water, while the Kojima et al. (1988)
inclusion of inertial effect is more important in intermediate-depth 4 Kriebel (1992)
Kakuno and Liu (1993)
water.
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Figs. 7 and 8 compare the measured and predicted reflection and Cho and Kim (2002)
transmission coefficients, respectively, for the two solutions of Mei Huang (2007a,b)
Ct_Kim/Ct_Meas

Suh et al. (2010)

(1989) and Kim (1998). For wave reflection, as previously shown in 3
Fig. 3, all the data which are severely under-predicted by the Mei's
formula are better predicted by the Kim's formula. For wave
transmission, some data which are severely over-predicted by the
Mei's formula are better predicted by the Kim's formula. However, the 2
scattering is still severe for both formulas.

4. Hybrid solution
1
Although the Kim's (1998) solution better predicts the experi-
mental results than other solutions, its accuracy is still not
satisfactory. All the parameters in the Kim's solution are obtained
0
based on fundamental fluid mechanics principles. In this section, we 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
propose a hybrid solution which has the same form as the Kim's kh
solution but several parameters of which are calculated by empirical
formulas. Fig. 5. Normalized transmission coefficient versus kh: (a) Mei's (1989) solution; (b)
Another way for linearizing Eqs. (7) to (12) is the Yu's (1995) Kim's (1998) solution.

method, which is based on the Sollitt and Cross's (1972) formulation.

Following the Yu's method, Eq. (12) can be written as On the other hand, Suh et al. (2011) proposed an empirical formula
for γ as
 
ibγ bs ∂ϕ1
ϕ2 = ϕ1 + + at x = 0 ð27Þ  −0:7
ε ε ∂x εb
γ = 0:0584 ð30Þ
h
where γ is the friction coefficient, and s is the inertia coefficient given
by along with the use of Cm = 0, or s = 1. Eqs. (29) and (30) with s = 1 can
be used in the calculation of P and R in Eqs. (13) and (14).
1−ε Fig. 9 compares the measured and predicted reflection and
s = 1 + Cm ð28Þ
ε transmission coefficients for the hybrid solution. Reasonable concur-
rence is shown between measurement and prediction, though the
where Cm is the added mass coefficient. accuracy of the solution tends to be lower near the middle range of the
Comparing Eqs. (12) and (27) leads to coefficients, i.e., 0.3 ≤ Cr, Ct ≤ 0.7.
Fig. 10 shows the reflection and transmission coefficients
ωbγ bs calculated by the hybrid solution as functions of kh for the barrier
β= and ‘ = ð29Þ
ε ε used in Fig. 2. In the range of kh greater than about 2.0, the hybrid
1094 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096

a 5 a 1

Hagiwara (1984)
Kojima et al. (1988)
4 Kakuno and Liu (1993)
0.8
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Cr_Kim(Noinertia)/Cr_Meas

Cho and Kim (2002)

Huang (2007a,b)
Suh et al. (2010)
3 0.6

Cr_Mei
2 0.4

1 0.2

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
kh Cr_Meas

b 5 b 1

Hagiwara (1984)
Kojima et al. (1988)
4 Kriebel (1992)
0.8
Kakuno and Liu (1993)
Isaacson et al. (1998)
Ct_Kim(Noinertia)/Ct_Meas

Cho and Kim (2002)

Huang (2007a,b)
Suh et al. (2010)
3 0.6
Cr_Kim

2 0.4

1 0.2

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
kh Cr_Meas

Fig. 6. Normalized reflection and transmission coefficients versus kh for Kim's (1998) Fig. 7. Comparison of reflection coefficient between measurement and prediction: (a)
solution without inertial effect: (a) reflection coefficient; (b) transmission coefficient. Mei's (1989) solution; (b) Kim's (1998) solution. Legend is the same as Fig. 6.

solution is the closest to the Kim's (1998) solution. The most plausible
thing compared with the existing solutions is that it gives a correct
result as kh goes to zero, i.e., complete transmission and zero
reflection.
To examine why the hybrid solution gives an opposite result to the
Kim's (1998) solution for small values of kh, β and ‘ were calculated
by the two models again for the barrier used in Fig. 2. The Kim's
(1998) model and hybrid model give a constant value of ‘ as 0.684 and
0.7, respectively, which are very close each other. This implies that the
inertia effect is almost same in the two solutions. Fig. 11 compares β's
calculated by the Kim's (1998) model and hybrid model as functions
of kh. The overall trends are completely opposite. In the range of kh
greater than about 1.0, the two values are close within 2 or 3 times of
one another. At small values of kh, however, each shows exponential
increase or decrease, respectively, with decreasing kh. For the hybrid
model, as can be seen in Eq. (29), β is proportional to ω with other
related variables to be constant. Therefore, β decreases rapidly with
decreasing kh for small values of kh. The value of β in the Kim's (1998)
model is also proportional to ω, as can be seen in Eq. (17). However,
the term involving hyperbolic functions in Eq. (17) leads β to infinity
as kh goes to zero. Neglecting the inertia term, Eq. (12) can be written
as
∂ϕ1 iω
= ðϕ −ϕ2 Þ at x = 0 ð31Þ
∂x β 1
This equation describes that the horizontal velocity at the opening
of the wall is proportional to the pressure difference across the wall.
The Kim's (1998) model calculates a large value of β for long waves,
which in turn calculates a small velocity at the wall, indicating large
wave reflection. This trend for small kh is definitely wrong because in
the limit of long waves the barrier is invisible to the waves so that
 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096 1095

a 1 a 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

Cr_Hybrid
Ct_Mei

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Ct_Meas Cr_Meas

b 1 b 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6
Ct_Hybrid
Ct_Kim

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Ct_Meas Ct_Meas
Fig. 8. Comparison of transmission coefficient between measurement and prediction: Fig. 9. Comparison of reflection and transmission coefficients between measurement
(a) Mei's (1989) solution; (b) Kim's (1998) solution. Legend is the same as Fig. 6. and prediction for hybrid solution: (a) reflection coefficient; (b) transmission
coefficient. Legend is the same as Fig. 6.

complete transmission and zero reflection of the waves should occur.

On the other hand, the hybrid model calculates a small value of β for
long waves, indicating a large velocity at the wall and large wave
transmission. Now we know what makes the two solutions give
opposite results, but we still do not know why it happens and how we
can remedy it.
Even though Eq. (30) was not developed in the present paper, an
explanation may be necessary to describe the effects of the
parameters involved in the equation. Neglecting the inertia term
again, substitution of Eq. (30) into Eq. (27) gives
thickness and water depth for the same pressure difference across the
wall.
One may wonder why the wave period is not included in the
hybrid solution by just looking at Eqs. (29) and (30). It must be noted
that the hybrid solution calculates the reflection and transmission
coefficients by substituting Eqs. (29) and (30) into Eqs. (13) and (14).
These equations require the calculation of P and R, which are functions
of wave number, k, which in turn is a function of wave period and
water depth.

1:7
∂ϕ1 iε 5. Conclusion
= ðϕ1 −ϕ2 Þ at x = 0 ð32Þ
∂x 0:0584b0:3 h0:7
In this study, we introduced the closed-form solution of Kim
This equation describes that the horizontal velocity at the opening (1998) for calculating the reflection and transmission coefficients of a
of the wall increases with the wall porosity but decreases with wall vertical slotted barrier. It was then compared with other closed-form
1096 K.-D. Suh et al. / Coastal Engineering 58 (2011) 1089–1096

1 coefficients than the existing solutions. Moreover, it gives a correct

result, i.e., small reflection and large transmission, for long waves. We
Cr explained what makes the hybrid and existing solutions give opposite
Ct results for long waves, but it is still not known why it happens and
0.8
how we can remedy it.
In the practical situation, circular piles may be used instead of
rectangular or square piles. Kakuno and Liu (1993) and Park et al.
(2000) proposed formulas for blockage coefficient and head loss
0.6
coefficient, respectively, for circular piles. Without showing the
Cr or Ct

results, we just mention that the circular piles give smaller reflection
and larger transmission than the square piles whose side length is the
0.4
same as the diameter of circular piles, but the difference is not large.
Considering the scattering of data as shown in Fig. 9, it may be
allowable to use the hybrid solution for circular piles by replacing b by
the pile diameter d.
0.2
Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Korea Sea Grant Program and
0 the Brain Korea 21 Project. This work was conducted at the Integrated
0 1 2 3 4 5
kh Research Institute of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Seoul
National University.
Fig. 10. Reflection and transmission coefficients calculated by hybrid solution as
function of kh for the same condition as Fig. 2.
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