Breakwater length optimisation using a root-finding algorithm

This paper describes a methodology for minimising the length of a breakwater based on the desired level of operability for a berthed vessel in its shadow zone. The methodology uses random wave theory to propagate waves to the berth accounting for refraction, shoaling, transmission and diffraction to find whether the vessel response exceeds its threshold for a time series of wave data. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to create a time series which is used where limited wave data is available. The output of the research is the optimised topographical layout of the breakwater.