Evaluation of hydrodynamic performance of quarter circular breakwater using soft computing techniques

Abstract

Breakwaters are massive structures constructed to provide the required tranquility within the ports. They are also used for safeguarding the beaches from eroding due to the severe action of waves, especially during inclement weather. In recent years, innovative structures such as Semi-circular and Quarter-circular Breakwaters (QBW) are being evolved to fulfill the ever-increasing demand from the coastal sector. QBW is a caisson with quarter circular surface towards incident waves, with horizontal bottom and a vertical wall on its rear side placed on a rubble mound foundation. In this paper, the experimental data collected at National Institute of Technology, Surathkal is used. The data collected is analysed by plotting the non-dimensional graphs of reflection coefficient, reflected wave height and incident wave height for various values of wave steepness. The values are used for prediction of QBW adopting Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) networks. Goodness-of-Fit (GoF) test using Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test statistic is applied for checking the adequacy of MLP and RBF networks to the experimental data. The performance of these networks is evaluated by using Model Performance Indicators (MPIs), viz. correlation coefficient, mean absolute error and model efficiency. The GoF test results and values of MPIs indicated the MLP is better suited amongst two networks adopted for evaluation of hydrodynamic performance of QBW. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019.