The different types of coastal structures have been constructed for the protection of coastal region from the incident waves. Among them, the permeable submerged breakwater has been widely used as a wave dissipater and sediment transport controller because of its excellent advantages in scenery effects, construction efficiency and environment aspects. This study numerically investigated the characteristics of wave energy variations and transmission coefficient at the rear of the permeable submerged breakwater installed in the irregular wave field. To analyze it"s performance numerically, a two-dimensional numerical wave flume based on VOF method was used. A frequency spectral analysis showed that the spectral peak moved to the short-period in the one-row submerged breakwater, and the wave energy was distributed evenly for the whole period in the two-row submerged breakwater in the case of breaking on the submerged breakwater. The spectral peak was shown to be converged within the significant wave period at the rear of the permeable submerged breakwater in the case of non-breaking conditions. From the result of transmission coefficients analysis, it was confirmed that a considerable quantity of wave energy was transmitted to the rear of the permeable submerged breakwater in the case of non-breaking rather than breaking.

For a coastal or harbor structure design, one of the most important environmental factors is the appropriate design wave condition. Especially, the information of deepwater wave height distribution is essential for reliability design. In this paper, a set of deep water wave data obtained from KORDI(2003) were analyzed for extreme wave heights. These wave data at 67 stations off the Korean coast from 1979 to 1998 were arranged in the 16 directions. The probability distributions considered in this research were the Weibull, the Gumbel, the Log-Pearson Type-III, and Lognormal distribution. For each of these distributions, three parameter estimation methods, i.e. the method of moments, maximum likelihood and probability weighted moments, were applied. Chi-square and Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit tests were performed, and the assumed distribution was accepted at the confidence level 95%. Gumbel distribution which best fits to the 67 station was selected as the most probable parent distribution, and optimally estimated parameters and 50 year design wave heights were presented.

method for the determination of concrete armor unit weights with hydraulic stability and structural stability may be formulated in this paper. The hydraulic stability is analyzed by using Hudson"s formula, the structural stability is also studied by evaluation of maximum flexural tensile stresses in armor unit induced by the impact loads and by comparison of those with the tensile resistance strength directly. The applicable criteria for concrete armor units can be represented as a function of design wave heights with return period, armor weights, and tensile strengths for the practical uses. In addition, reliability analyses for two failure modes are carried out to take into account some uncertainties. Finally, a series system for two-failure mode analysis can be made up straightforwardly, by which the optimal weights of armor units can be estimated with the various relative breakages, given the specific target probability of failure under the concepts of reliability-based design method.

Double-peak normal distribution function was suggested as the probability density function of the tidal elevation data in Korean coastal zone. Frequency distribution analysis was carried out using hourly tidal elevation data of the ten tidal gauging stations, i.e., Incheon, Kunsan, Mokpo, Cheju, Yeosu, Masan, Gadeokdo, Pusan, Pohang, and Sokcho which were served through the Internet Homepage by the National Ocean Research Institute. Based on the RMS error and value comparison analysis, it was found that this suggested function as the probability density function of the tidal elevation data was found to be more appropriate than the normal distribution function. The parameters of the double-peak function were estimated optimally using Levenberg-Marquardt method which was modified from the Newton method. The estimated parameters were highly correlated with the non-tidal constants of the tidal gauging stations.

On the basis of the radiotracer technology and the related equipments which have been developed for its industrial application through the nuclear long-term research project, a radiotracer study on sediment transport was carried out as a part of the development of the radiotracer technology for a coastal environment. The crystalline material doped with iridium having a similar composition and specific gravity as those of the bedload sand collected from the research area was produced by the oxide-route method. A radioisotope container was specially designed to inject the radiotracer from 1 m above the sea bedload without radioactive contamination during the transport from the nuclear reactor at KAERI. The position data from the DGPS and the radiation measurement data were collected concurrently and stored by means of the application software programmed with the LabVIEW of the National Instrument. The position data was reprocessed to represent the real position of the radiation probe under water and not that of the DGPS antenna on board. The time dependency of the spatial distribution of the sediment was studied in the area through three tracking measurements after the iridium glass was injected. This trial application showed the potential of the radiotracer technology as an important role for maintaining and developing the coastal environment in the future.

A new wave gauge using digital image of waves is developed and the performances are tested by wave tank experiments. This wave gauge uses frame frequency of 1/15 sec, conversion of analog images to digital images, and large capacity of hard disk. This wave gauge measures wave heights by detecting the buoy movement automatically from the image, where the buoy moves with the same phase of water surface. The comparison of automatic measurements of wave heights to the true data is reasonable. The wave gauge can be improved to measure wave heights on shallow waters near shorelines.

For designing a reliable harbor, a methodology for estimating design waves of 97.5% operable harbor condition is suggested using long-term wave data. For a practical application of the methodology, a marine police harbor was selected as a site. Wave data used were collected from February 1993 to December 2003 at Jodo wave gage station in front of Pusan harbor. Joint distributions of significant wave height and significant wave period for specified wave directions were obtained and used to feed as input waves for parabolic mild-slope wave model. Results showed that input waves with significant wave height of 1.75 m, significant wave period of 7 sec and wave direction E yield design waves height of 1.06 m at the site of interests, which is a 97.5% operable harbor condition. Wind waves generated inside harbor showed to be no effect on the design wave condition. Swells propagated from deep water into harbor are shown to be dominant effects on the design waves of operable harbor condition.