Sea waves and design of coastal structures @ TU Braunschweig Page 1 of 2

Sea Waves and Design of Coastal Structures

1. Motivation and Objectives

Increasing storminess and sea level rise have led to the necessity of a deeper understanding of the
behaviour of coastal structure under extreme wave conditions as well as a better optimization of
their design. Increase in volume of worldwide maritime trade, rapid development of gigantic marine
vessels, and development of artificial islands for port-airport projects, e.g. Kansai airport in Japan,
are indications for an increase of the need for further coastal and marine structures.

Gravity marine structures are far better in terms of standardization, quality control, environmental
aspects, construction time, technical performance, and maintenance. Monolithic caissons can be
designed with any shape, size, perforations, and any further features needed to reduce their
environmental impact. They need less material and energy for material transportation. They are
also suitable for multi-purpose use; use as a berth, touristic use, industrial use, and installation of
wave power extraction devices. The multi-purpose use of vertical breakwaters increases their
financial feasibility alongside their acceptance by society.

Nevertheless, monolithic breakwaters/seawalls are more vulnerable to foundations failure.

Numerous severe and catastrophic failures were experienced by vertical breakwaters and recorded
in the literature. Based on a study by Oumeraci (1994) on failure of more than 40 vertical
breakwaters it was concluded that the large permanent deformations of the subsoil observed
worldwide; underneath vertical breakwaters, are an accumulation of small irreversible strains at
repetitive peak stresses rather than a pore pressure build up after each load cycle, not likely due to
residual liquefaction. Much research aiming at enhancing design of vertical breakwaters was carried
out under the EU-project PROVERBS, probalistic design of vertical breakwaters (Oumeraci et al.,
2001). Furthermore, within the LIMAS project, liquefaction around marine structures, a large-scale
physical model was constructed in the Large Wave Flume (GWK) in the Costal Research Center
(FZK), as shown in Figure 1, and results from this research significantly contributed to the
understanding of liquefaction phenomenon underneath caisson structures (Oumeraci and Kudella,
2004; Kudella and Oumeraci, 2006, 2008). However, the balance between generation and
dissipation of residual pore pressure in the soil foundation was neither totally understood nor
properly reproduced numerically (see Figure 2).

Fig. 1: Cross section of the model set-up with location of measuring devices (Photo:
Oumeraci and Kudella, 2004)

Fig. 2: Load, pore pressure response, and soil deformation for one test results (Photo:
Oumeraci and Kudella, 2004)

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Sea waves and design of coastal structures @ TU Braunschweig Page 2 of 2

The stepwise residual displacements of the caisson closely follow the stepwise increase of residual
pore pressure until generation and dissipation are in balance (saturation point S in Figure 2). After
this point the dissipation process dominates over the pore pressure generation process leading to a
decrease in residual pore pressure, which can definitely be quantified by a more detailed analysis of
the balance between the generation and the dissipation process of pore pressure.

The aim of this project is to develop a coupled CF -CS numerical model that can successfully
regenerate the physical experiments at the (FZK), especially the inflexion point (I) and the
saturation point (S); the balance between generation and dissipation of pore pressure in the
foundation. Hence, the correlation between residual pore pressure and residual soil deformation
(settlement) can be focused upon, properly understood, and interpreted.

2. Wor Programme and Methodolog

The coupled CF -CS model systems will be systemically validated by the results of the large-
scale model tests for different wave regions, including all of non-breaking waves, slightly breaking
waves, and breaking wave impact loads. The validated model system will then be used for a more
detailed parameter study to further improve the under study of the processes associated with the
wave-structure-foundation interaction, especially the correlation between residual pore pressure
and residual soil deformation (settlement) can be extensively studied. Based on this improved
understanding, an attempt will be made to develop simple formulae to predict both residual pore
pressure and residual soil deformation under different wave load regimes.

. Practical pplication
The results from this research will contribute to enhancing the design procedure for marine gravity
structures subject to both moderate and extreme wave condition, coastal and offshore.
Furthermore, protective measures against stepwise failure of such structures can be suggested
based on the improved understanding of the stated problem. In addition, the developed model can
be extended to investigate the case for other types of structures.

eferences
De root, M. . Kudella, M. Meijers, P. Oumeraci, . (200 ): Liquefaction phenomena
underneath marine gravity structures subjected to wave loads. ASCE, Journal of Waterway, Port,
Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Special issue on Liquefaction Around Marine Structures, vol. 1 2,
no. 4, pp. 2 - .

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (200 ):) Experimental and numerical study of the response of a
sandbed beneath a caisson breakwaters subject to cyclic wave load. Proceedings of the 31st
International Conference Coastal Engineering (ICCE 2008), Hamburg, Germany.

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (200 ): evelopment of residual pore pressure in the sandbed beneath
a caisson breakwater. Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Coastal Engineering
(ICCE 2006), San iego, California, USA.

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . de root, M. . Meijers, P. (200 ): Large-scale experiments on pore

pressure generation underneath a caisson breakwater. ASCE, Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal
and Ocean Engineering, vol. 1 2, no. 4, pp. 10- 24.

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (200 ): Einfluss zyklischer Bauwerksbewegungen auf die Stabilit t der
Sandgr ndung unter einem Caisson-Wellenbrecher. 5. FZK-Kolloquium, FZK, Hannover, Germany,
pp. 89-94 (in German).

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (2004a): Pore pressure development in the sand bed underneath a
caisson breakwater. Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Coastal Engineering
(ICCE 2004), Lisbon, Portugal, vol. 4, pp. 800- 812.

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (2004b): Wave-induced transient and residual pore pressure in the
sand bed underneath a caisson breakwater - processes leading to liquefaction. Proceedings of the
International Conference on Cyclic Behaviour of Soils and Liquefaction Phenomena, Bochum,
Germany, pp. 411-424.

Kudella, M. Oumeraci, . (200 ): Porenwasserdr cke im Sanduntergrund maritimer Strukturen -

gro ma st bliche Modellversuche an einem Caisson-Wellenbrecher. 4. FZK-Kolloquium, FZK,
Hannover, Germany, pp. 9-14 (in German).

Oumeraci, . Kortenhaus, . llsop, W. de root, M. Crouch, . rijling, . oortman, .

(2001): Probabilistic design tools for vertical breakwaters. The Netherlands Swets Zeitlinger B.V.,
20 p.

Oumeraci, . Kudella, M. (2004): Liquefaction around marine structures (LIMAS) - Work package
, large scale experiments on a caisson breakwater. Report of Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic
Engineering and Water Resources no. 900, Technical University Braunschweig, Braunschweig,
Germany, 119 p.

last changed 26.08.2016

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