Wave dissipating wall
AssigneesNippon Tetrapod Co., Ltd., Robert Q. Palmer
InventorsHisanori Kato, Hiroshi Okamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wave dissipating wall is formed of a plurality of wave chambers comprising a plurality of horizontal plates and vertical partition walls opening toward the direction from which waves come in. The ends of the walls dividing the chambers are wider than the remaining parts of the walls and the front walls comprise semi-circular curved surfaces extending toward the direction from which the waves come in order to introduce the waves into the chamber having a wider width than the entrance formed between the respective front walls and to let the waves circulate within the chamber by the energy of the waves, thereby increasing the friction resistance between the waves and the walls as much as possible and achieving an efficient diminishing of the wave energy.
Claims16
A wave dissipating wall comprising means defining a plurality of water chambers arranged in side-by-side and in vertically stacked relationship to form at least two levels of chambers, each of said chamber defining means comprising:
- a pair of spaced substantially horizontal plate-like members, each having front and rear portions;
- at least one rear wall extending substantially vertically between the rear portions of said horizontal plate-like members to define a rear wall of a chamber, said plate-like members defining the upper and lower surfaces of said chamber;
- a plurality of spaced apart substantially vertical partition walls extending between said two plate-like members from said rear wall towards the front portions of said plate-like members, said partition walls being each connected to said rear wall and defining respective curved corners with said rear wall, said curved corners being directed inwardly of said chamber;
- and
- means defining an entrance opening at said front portions of said plate-like members, said entrance opening defining means comprising at least two spaced apart substantially vertical front pillars extending between said plate-like members and having convex surfaces which face away from said rear wall and extend outward in the direction from which waves approach, said front pillars being connected at the forward ends of respective partition walls and defining respective curved corners with said respective partition walls, said curved corners of said front pillars being directed inwardly of said chamber so as to cooperate with said rear wall, partition walls and front pillars to define at least one circulating flow path in said chamber, whereby water entering said chamber provides substantially continuous circulation around said at least one flow path to dissipate wave energy;
- said front pillars each having a width such that the width of the entrance opening defined between adjacent front pillars is less than the width of the water chamber defined between adjacent spaced apart partition walls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.