DAMPING OF HORIZONTAL AND UPLIFT FORCES ON

HORIZONTALLY COMPOSITE CAISSON BREAKWATERS

*) *)
Andreas KORTENHAUS ; Hocine OUMERACI
*)
Leichtweiß-Institut, Technical University of Braunschweig, Beethovenstr. 51a,
38106 Braunschweig, Germany, e-mail: a.kortenhaus@tu-bs.de

1. INTRODUCTION 2. TEST CONDITIONS

For many existing vertical breakwaters where higher risks
for impact loadings were observed constructional measures
are needed to reduce the loading due to impacting waves
(OUMERACI, 1994) and thus leading to a reduction of the
dimension and costs of the structure. Horizontally composite
breakwaters where a composite breakwater is covered by
concrete blocks are increasingly used to fulfil this purpose.
Especially in Japan, this type of breakwater is rather com-
mon so that they are very often named as 'Japanese type
breakwater'. A typical cross section of this type of break-
waters is given in Figure 1.
Tetrapod
layer
B crown
The hydraulic model tests in the Large Wave Flume of Han-
nover (GWK) have been performed in the frame of a basic
research programme called 'Sonderforschungsbereich 205 /
TP B3' (Special Research Unit 205). This project was aim-
ing at a verification of the aforementioned formulae and
possibly to build a basis for further more systematic research
programmes.
Water levels, wave heights and wave periods have been
varied throughout the tests whereas the width of the berm
and of the rubble layer in front of the breakwater, the di-
mensions of the structure and the slopes of both the fore-
shore and the berm were kept constant.

Detailed descriptions of the model setup and which tests

DWL Rc DWL
have been selected for analysis and how comparisons be-
H b0 Caisson hc tween tests have been made will be described in the paper.
d Baverage
d0 hs Bb
Bb This will also include how tests were synchronised and how
data are separated to be impact or non impact waves.
1

hb hr
m

m
1:

1:

d sand
1:m B bottom
Figure 1: Typical cross section of a horizontally composite
breakwater (Japanese type)
The main purposes of these structures are as follows:
¾ exclude impact forces and to reduce the wave forces
acting on the structure (horizontal force Fh and uplift
force Fu);
¾ reduce the wave reflection from the structure;
¾ protect the structure against scour.
In order to verify the existing Japanese design method for
this type of structure (TANIMOTO AND TAKAHASHI,
1994) large-scale hydraulic model tests were conducted in
1994 to measure wave-induced horizontal and uplift forces
on a vertical model breakwater. Comparisons were per-
formed for a structure with and without a damping layer in
front of the structure.
Sand
A number of 18 data sets (only random waves) were created
where the same tests (identical water level and wave pa-
rameters) were performed for a vertical structure without
damping layer (undamped case) and a horizontally compos-
ite breakwater with a damping layer made of concrete
blocks.
Recorded data comprised water elevation at the structure
(wave gauges), horizontal pressures at the front wall, verti-
cal pressures underneath the bottom of the caisson, dis-
placement of the caisson itself, and acceleration of the cais-
son. More detailed information on test setup and results of
the analysis are given in HOLM, 1998.
3. RESULTS
Typical results of various tests conducted with random
waves will be shown in the paper. It will be seen that not
only the dynamic horizontal forces but also the dynamic up-
lift forces are damped significantly. Furthermore, it should
be noted that the damping increases with increasing magni-
tude of the dynamic loading (see Figure 2 and Figure 3).
 10 Table 1: Overview of data analysis cases A-H
F h = 1.2 without damping layer
Non impact Impact
8
µ D,h ≈ 50 %
Horiz. Uplift Horiz. Uplift
Horizontal force F h [kN/m]

6 Comp. Tanimoto A B
F h = 0.6 with damping layer
Damping ratio C D E F
4
Statist. Approach G H
2

0 GWK, Random waves

no Fhq
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 1.00 1.0 < Fhmax /F hq <= 1.5
1.5 < Fhmax /F hq <= 2.0
2.0 < Fhmax /F hq <= 2.5
-2 Fhmax /F hq > 2.5

0.75
-4

Time t [s]

µ d,h [-]
Tanimoto test results
0.50

Figure 2: Damping for horizontal forces induced by quasi-

Proposed damp. ratio
standing waves 0.25

35
F h = 4.1
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
30
without damping layer b 0 /L hs [-]
Horizontal force F h [kN/m]

25

µ ≈ 80 %
20 D,h
Figure 4: Damping ratio for horizontal forces vs. effective
15 length of damping layer for non-impact waves
10
(case C)
F h = 0.9
5 with damping layer

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-5
This study has been funded by the German Research Coun-
-10

Time t [s]
cil, Bonn (DFG) under project no. OU 1/1-1. Additional
support for further analysis of the data was given by the
Figure 3: Damping for horizontal forces induced by impact MAST III PROVERBS project (MAS3-CT95-0041) which
waves is also gratefully acknowledged.

It was therefore necessary to distinguish between non impact

and impact cases where a simple method was developed in REFERENCES
the time domain to filter the highly dynamic impacts. HOLM, A. (1998): Design of vertical and composite break-
water foundation subject to dynamic loading. Part A:
The analysis of horizontal and uplift forces as well as their Wave Loading and Damping of Wave Loads, Research
related damping ratio (defined as 1 – Fh,damped / Fh,undamped) Report, MAST III, PROVERBS-Project: Probabilistic
generally followed three different ways (KORTENHAUS & Design Tools for Vertical Breakwaters, Braunschweig,
OUMERACI, 1999): 56 pp., 6 Annexes.
a) Comparison of obtained damping ratios to the KORTENHAUS, A.; OUMERACI, H. (1999): Horizontally
method of Tanimoto for non breaking waves; composite caisson breakwaters. Final Proceedings,
b) Derivation of semi-empirical formulae for the MAST III, PROVERBS project: Probabilistic Design
damping ratios for horizontal and uplift forces; Tools for Vertical Breakwaters, Vol. IIa: Hydraulic As-
c) Statistical comparison of force distributions for pects, Chapter 8.2, 29 pp.
damped and undamped cases and derivation of sta- TANIMOTO, K.; TAKAHASHI, S. (1994): Design and
tistical transfer function between both cases. construction of caisson breakwaters - the Japanese expe-
rience. Coastal Engineering, Special Issue on 'Vertical
The analysis cases A-H which have been performed with the Breakwaters', Editors: Oumeraci, H. et al., Amsterdam,
measured data using these methods are shown in Table 1. Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Bd. 22,
Nr. 1/2, S. 57-77.
Details of the analyses and formulae developed on the basis
of these tests will be presented during the conference. One
example graph for case C in Table 1 is shown in Figure 4: