A floating breakwater produces less environmental impact, but is easily destroyed by large waves. In this paper, the spar buoy floating breakwater is introduced with a study on the wave reflection and transmission characteristics and mooring line tension induced by the waves. Mei (The Applied Dynamics of Ocean Surface Waves, Wiley, New York (1983) 740 p) proposed a theoretical solution for the reflection and transmission coefficients as the wave propagates through a one-layer slotted barrier. For a multiple-layer fence system, the analytical solution is proposed linearly. The results show that the theoretical computations agree well with the experimental trends. For a multiple-layer fence system, the transmission coefficients become maximal as the layer spacing to wavelength ratio moves to 1/2. Conversely, the coefficients become minimal, as the ratio moves to 0.3. To estimate the maximum tension of the mooring line, both numerical calculations and laboratory experiments were executed. The numerical calculation results were similar to the experimental results. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
