A Wave of Data: The Effect of Breakwater Permeability on Passing Waves

The rate of shoreline erosion has accelerated due to rising sea levels and severe weather brought on by climate change, threatening habitats, ecosystems, and infrastructure. The artificial seawalls often exacerbate shoreline erosion and disrupt marine ecosystems. Our project designs and tests new seawall designs inspired by natural barriers like oyster reefs and mangrove roots, striving to explore ecologically engineered methods. We constructed a tank with a motorized propeller to generate waves and a piece of acrylic dividing the tank lengthwise to focus wave propagation. Five experimental groups were tested using 3D-printed seawall prototypes of varying height and permeability, including solid walls and those perforated with evenly-spaced 0.5-inch holes at full and half height, and a control with no wavebreak. We recorded videos of the waves for each experimental group, and measured the amplitude of these waves by digitally tracking peaks and troughs. Results indicated no obvious correlation between the seawall and amplitude reduction. Although the 0.5-inch holes did not significantly dampen wave energy, the study does provide a blueprint to systematically analyze the impact of seawalls with various permeabilities on wave amplitude. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between seawall design and the influence it has on shoreline waves, aimed toward preventing erosion.