Heterogeneous packing and hydraulic stability of cube and cubipod armor units

Abstract

This paper describes the heterogeneous packing (HEP) failure mode of breakwater armor. HEP reduces packing density in the armor layer near and above the mean water level and increases packing density below it. With HEP, armor units may move in the armor layer, although they are not actually extracted from it. Thus, when HEP occurs, armor-layer porosity is not constant, and measurements obtained with conventional methods may underestimate armor damage. In this paper, the Virtual Net method is proposed to calculate armor damage considering both armor-unit extraction and HEP. The Cubipod concrete armor unit is then described as a solution to the effects of HEP on conventional cubic block armor. The hydraulic stability of cube and Cubipod armor units was compared in two-dimensional laboratory experiments. Cube and Cubipod armor layers were tested in two wave flumes under nonbreaking and non-overtopping conditions. The hydraulic stability was higher for double-layer Cubipod armor than for single-layer Cubipod armor, which had a higher hydraulic stability tan conventional double-layer cube armor.