OPTIMISTIC, DETERMINISTIC DESIGN OF KARAIKAL PORT BREAKWATER STRUCTURE: CASE STUDY

Abstract

Ports are important in international trade. These are gateway to country transport for cargo handling and commodity, where vessels may discharge or receive cargo. Karaikal port is the private port between the major ports of Chennai and tuticorin. It has two breakwater one is north breakwater of 650mtr and south breakwater of 600mtr. To increase cargo handling and protection of harbour from the waves and currents, breakwater structure is built and expansion has been taking place 400mtr on North side breakwater and 350mtr on south side Breakwater.For the expansion of breakwater, optimistic and deterministic design has been applied. In the deterministic design structural alternatives have been considered for economic design of breakwater. In the optimistic design we have to consider most economical Concrete Armour unit for the Armour layer of Karaikal port. Design of Rubble mound breakwater in a mathematical model for the purposes of weight of Armour layer and thickness of armour layer has been concluded.Design of Rubble mound breakwater in a mathematical model has consider x-bloc as a concrete armour unit which is suitable to reduce Breakwater structure construction cost in a Karaikal port. A breakwater could be optimized with respect to amongst others, construction costs, construction time, material reduction, environmental impacts and total cost. The most promising alternatives should be economically optimized and the results should be compared in order to assess the best solution. Rubble mound breakwater type with an concrete armour unit for that deterministic design and optimistic design has been applied for a Karaikal port.