Innovative rubble mound breakwaters for overtopping wave energy conversion

This paper intends contributing to the development of an economically and environmentally sustainable coastal infrastructure, which combines rubble mound breakwaters with Wave Energy Converters (WEC). The energy is produced by collecting wave overtopping in a front reservoir, which is returned to the sea through turbines. Wave loadings and average wave overtopping rate at the rear side of the rubble mound breakwater and in the front reservoir are discussed on the basis of physical 2-D model tests carried out at Aalborg University (DK). The experiments have been analyzed and compared with results from model tests and wave load design formulae by Nørgaard et al. (2013) for traditional rubble mound crown walls. The existing prediction methods seem unable to predict the hydraulic performances and loadings on the front reservoir and thus new prediction formulae are proposed based on the new experiments. The formulae are provided with the aim to be of direct use to engineers in the preliminary design of a first prototype of combined breakwater and wave energy converter.