Innovative Seawalls and Rubble Mound Breakwater Design for Wave Energy Conversion

The development of contemporary coastal infrastructure is nowadays dictated by the need for economical and environmental sustainability, which can however be provided by the combination of breakwaters and Wave Energy Converters (WEC). The latter convert wave energy to electricity, whilst previous research has shown that they can also enhance the protective roll of coastal structures such as rubble mound breakwaters and vertical seawalls. Such WECs can in theory provide sufficient energy to partly cover the needs of small communities and although retrofitting solutions for vertical seawalls have been proposed no solution is yet available for rubble mound structures. A following this an overview of previous research efforts is reported here along with an ongoing experimental effort aiming on the development and optimisation of a retrofitting solution for rubble mound breakwaters. It is envisage that such a structure will convert wave energy to electricity and in the same time it will reduce run-up and overtopping.