Rubble-mound breakwater armour units displacement analysis by means of digital images processing methods in scale models

Abstract

Rubble-mound structures are commonly used for coastal and port protection and needs a properly design as well as inspection and maintenance during its lifetime. The design of such breakwaters usually requires a physical scale model to be tested under different irregular incident wave and tide conditions in order to evaluate its hydraulic and structural behaviour, namely the stability of the proposed design. Armour units displacement and fall analysis in physical models are then a key point in the design verification and usually requires a trained technician. In this work, an algorithm made in Matlab® is presented, consisting in digital images processing and analysis which allows automatic and precise displacement detection as well as its location in time and space. For a selected displacement, it is also possible to characterize it.