Advance in wave reflection estimation for rubble mound breakwaters: The importance of the relative water depth

The main objective of this research is to present an improved and more accurate formula to estimate the reflection coefficient (K_R) for rubble mound breakwaters. Physical model tests were performed for this purpose and existing data was also considered. The evaluation of existing prediction formulas for K_R based on the Iribarren number (ξ) shows that the scatter in the experimental results increases with increasing ξ. This is caused by the wavelength having greater influence on the reflection than the wave height and thus the use of the wave steepness is inappropriate. The influence of potentially dimensionless parameters on the wave reflection from literature was analysed. The major dimensionless parameters were found to be the relative water depth (h/L) and the structure front slope angle (α). Hence, a formula to estimate wave reflection for rubble mound breakwaters based on these two parameters is proposed.