Wave reflection and transmission by porous breakwaters: A new analytical solution

•We give a new analytical solution for wave scattering by porous breakwaters.•The porous breakwaters are surface-piercing.•Velocity potential decompositions are used to obtain the solution.•The new solution needs no complex wave numbers.•The numerical implementation of the new solution is very simple.

This study gives a new analytical solution for wave reflection and transmission by a surface-piercing porous breakwater. Velocity potential decompositions in the breakwater are used to obtain the solution. Different from traditional solutions, the new solution needs no complex dispersion relations (complex wave numbers) for wave motion through porous media. Thus, difficult procedures in traditional solutions for solving complex dispersion relations and handling non-self-adjoint eigenvalue problem are avoided. The calculated results of the new solution are in very good agreement with those of traditional solutions and multi-domain boundary element method solutions.