New vertical floating barrier to protect against wind waves and ship waves

A new partially submerged vertical floating barrier to protect against sea waves and the waves generated by ship motions is presented. The first approach to achieve an optimum design of the new floating structure, was the study of a fixed barrier based using theoretical method in order to obtain solution for the transmission, reflection and the wave induced force on the structure. The theoretical method was validated with experimental measurements and calibrated for the case of a partially submerged slotted barrier. Furthermore, experimental tests on the new floating barrier were carried out and the results between the fixed and the floating barrier were compared. In addition, a free decay test was carried out in order to study the damping system. The final design was built in the port of Cabo de Cruz (Galicia, Spain), and is now in process of being instrumented in order to measure the real transmission and reflection coefficients as well as the wave induced forces on the structure. The instrumentation process is also described in the present paper.