Evolution of nearshore currents around submerged breakwaters

Submerged breakwaters are becoming increasingly popular as they offer number of aesthetic and environmental advantages over the other shore protection structures. However the utilization of submerged breakwaters for shore protection is relatively new hence proper design guidelines are yet to be established. Though there are a few studies on submerged breakwaters on laboratory scale and prototype scale at present, most of them focus on wave transformation and very little is known about the evolution of nearshore currents in the vicinity of these structures, which is important for predicting morphological changes around them. The goal of this study is to analyze the patterns of nearshore circulation currents behind the submerged breakwater system hence investigate the influential parameters, which lead these circulation currents. The results obtained from present study are found to be helpful in understanding complex nature of nearshore currents around submerged breakwaters and investigating predictive skills of numerical models.