Physical model tests of the notional permeability on breakwaters

Abstract

Breakwaters are important objects to protect coastal- and harbour areas. To minimalize the probability of failure of breakwaters, a lot of research has been conducted concerning the stability of breakwaters. After Iribarren and Hudson, an influential research is conducted by Van der Meer. The literature research of this report will provide more background information concerning their researches on the stability of breakwaters. Van der Meer tested three sorts of breakwater constructions. The first breakwater structure contained a homogeneous construction (P=0.6) The second and third structure consisted of respectively a construction with impermeable core (P=0.1) and a structure with a filter layer and a permeable core (P=0.5). These variants of breakwaters were constructed with different slopes angles to require as much information possible concerning the stability of breakwaters. Van der Meer discovered two formulas for the stability of breakwaters. The first formula is used for plunging waves while the second formula is used for surging waves.Within these formulas, important factors as damage, wave height and notional permeability are included. The most important parameter of the formulas of Van der Meer is the notional permeability factor P. Van der Meer conducted his research on three different constructions and has designed a fourth construction based on the stability curves. This fourth construction has a value of permeability of 0.4. This value is estimated based on curve fitting. Following the research done by Van der Meer, Kik has subsequently researched the notional permeability of three breakwater constructions. Firstly, Kik repeated the test with a construction of impermeable core (model 1/P=0.08) and the test with the construction of filter layer and permeable core (model 2/ P=0.05) of Van der Meer. Lastly, Kik did a third test existing of a variant of the design of the fourth construction of Van der Meer (model 3 / P=0.35). Concluding from his research, Kik stated that the ‘Root mean square equation’ is a reliable method to determine the notional permeability P. During this research the influence of the thickness of the filter layer on the notional permeability P is studied. This research will also try to answer the question whether other relevant aspects might influence the notional permeability as well. The elaboration of this research is performed in a practical way in a wave flume in the water laboratory of the faculty of civil engineering of the TU Delft. Scale models of the breakwaters were constructed to test the notional permeability of the breakwaters. In the water laboratory three models were tested. Firstly, model 3 of Kik is repeated as model 3A, with a calculated value of notional permeability P 0.38. The construction of model 3A is build with a top layer, filter layer 1, filter layer 2 and a impermeable core. Second, another variant of model 3 of Kik is designed and tested (model 4). However, the measured damage figures were too low and therefore they could not be used to calculate a value for the notional permeability P. The construction of model four is build with a top layer, filter layer 1, filter layer 2 which is thicker as model 3A and an impermeable core. Finally, model 5 is tested with a calculated value of notional permeability of P 0.45. This model is designed from the fourth construction of Van der Meer. The construction of model 5 is build with a top layer, filter layer 1 and a permeable core with the same material of filter layer 2 of model 3A and model 4. The results of this research show that the influences of the notional permeability P exists of the ratio of the armour layer thickness and the thickness of the second filter layer. If the layer thicknesses are equal the value for notional permeability P is 0.38, which follows from model 3A. If the second layer has an infinite thickness (permeable core), the value for notional permeability P is 0.45, which follows from model 5. The value of the notional permeability P of model 5 corresponds to the design calculations of the computer model HADEER. Van der Meer discovered using this computer model that the ratio of dn50a/ dn50f = 5 has a value on the notional permeability P of 0.43 –0.44. During this research, while using two different methods, a value of the notional permeability P of 0.45 was calculated.