Damage assessment in rubble-mound breakwaters under oblique wave incidence

Abstract

Regarding the stability of armour layers, several authors have proposed guidelines on how to consider the effects of oblique waves (e.g. Yu et al., 2002, Van Gent, 2014; Maciñeira & Burcharth, 2016). Especially for very oblique waves, for which the increase in stability is the largest, limited data are available. Under the scope of the HYDRALAB+ transnational access project “RODBreak”, an experiment that lasted for six weeks was conducted in a tank at the Marienwerden facilities of the Leibnitz Universitaet Hannover (LUH), involving seventeen people from seven different institutions from four European countries. Those experiments comprised measurements of sea waves, run-up, overtopping and armour layer damage. This paper will focus on damage evolution of the rubble-mound breakwater roundhead under oblique extreme wave conditions, on the novelty of the tests and on the advancements on knowledge of round head stability.