BREAK WATER SYSTEMS

Alojado, Alain Gemuel

Bial, Alan May

Lotas, Alonnie Jane

Miramon, Drexler

Teologo, Nikka Joie

I. DEFINITION

Breakwaters are "free standing" stone structures placed offshore to control shoreline erosion by
maintaining a wide, protective beach. They "break" the force of the waves and dissipate the energy so
the waves do not erode the beach and upland banks. A breakwater is a structure constructed for the
purpose of forming an artificial harbour with a basin so protected from the effect of waves as to provide
safe berthing for fishing vessels. There are many different types of breakwaters; natural rock and
concrete, or a combination of the two, are the materials which form 95 percent or more of all the
breakwaters constructed.

II. PARAMETERS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BREAKWATER

When a breakwater is to be built at a certain location, and the environmental impact of such a
structure has already been evaluated and deemed environmentally feasible, the following parameters are
required before construction can commence:

 a detailed hydrographic survey of the site;

o This is required for the calculation of the volumes of material required for the
breakwater.
 a geotechnical investigation of the sea bed;
o This is required to determine the type of founding material and its extent. The results of
this investigation will have a direct bearing on the type of cross-section of the
breakwater.
 a wave height investigation or hindcasting;
o The height of wave incident on a breakwater generally determines the size and
behaviour of the breakwater. It is hence of the utmost importance to obtain realistic values
of the waves expected in a particular area. Behaviour of water waves is one of the most
intriguing of nature’s phenomena. Waves manifest themselves by curved undulations of the
surface of the water occurring at periodic intervals. They are generated by the action of
 wind moving over a waterbody; the stronger the wind blows, the higher the waves
generated.
 a material needs assessment;
o Given that most breakwaters consist of either rock or concrete or a mixture of both, it is
evident that if these primary construction materials are not available in the required
volume in the vicinity of the project site, then either the materials have to be shipped in
from another source (by sea or by road) or the harbour design has to be changed to
allow for the removal of the breakwater (the site may have to be moved elsewhere).
 the cross-sectional design of the structure.
o Last but not least, a suitable cross-sectional design for the breakwater has to be
produced taking into consideration all the previous data.

III. TYPES OF BREAKWATER SYSTEMS

Detached Breakwater

They are designed to promote beach deposition on their leeside and is appropriate in areas of
large sediment transport. They are constructed away from the shoreline and usually a slight distance
offshore. They are constructed without connection to the shore.

Head Land Breakwater

A series of breakwaters constructed in an attached fashion to the shoreline. They require beach
fill to create embayments for long-term shoreline erosion control and can be used to accentuate existing
shore features.

Nearshore Breakwaters

Nearshore breakwaters are detached, mostly shore-parallel. They reduce the amount of wave
energy reaching a protected area. They are similar to natural bars, reefs or nearshore islands that
dissipate wave energy.

Rubble Mound Breakwaters

It is a structure built up of core of quarry run rock overlain by one or two layers of large rocks.
Armour stone or precast elements are used for outer armour layer to protect the structure against wave
attack. Crown wall is constructed on top of mound to prevent or reduce waves. This type of breakwaters
dissipate the incident wave energy by forcing them to break on a slop and thus do not produce
appreciable reflection.
Vertical Breakwater

A breakwater formed by the construction in a regular and systematic manner of a vertical wall of
masonry concrete blocks or mass concrete, with vertical seaward face. They reflect the incident waves
without dissipating much wave energy. Normally constructed in location where depth of the sea is greater
than twice the design wave height.

Types of vertical breakwaters:

Conventional type – placed on a relatively thin stone bedding; this type uses the minimum natural rock

Vertical Composite type – placed on high rubble foundation; economic in deep waters but requires a lot
of rock fill for foundation

Horizontal Composite type – usually in shallow water; reduces wave reflection, impact, and overtopping;
used when a quay is required at the inside of rubble mound breakwater

Block type – placed on rock sea beds or on very strong soils due to very high foundation loads and
sensitivity to differential settlements

Piled breakwater with concrete wall – consists of an inclined or vertical curtain wall mounted on pile work

IV. DESIGN OF BREAKWATER

Breakwaters are widely used structures to control coastal erosion and to ensure safe access to
harbors. They are barriers that are frequently displaced perpendicularly to the dominant wave direction,
which absorb, refract, diffract and reflect part of the wave energy, therefore reducing the amount of
energy that reaches the shoreline. Wave height is thus reduced therefore facilitating the harbourage of
ships and controlling erosion.

Different types of breakwaters can be used, which can be built by using several different
materials. They also differ for their permeability, the possibility to be overtopped and therefore the
resulting reduction of the energy of waves.

Breakwaters have a significant impact on the wave regime and therefore coastal dynamics and
morphodynamics. They may also imply unintended consequences. The dissipation of energy and relative
calm water created in the lee of the breakwaters often encourage deposition of sediment. This can lead
to the formation of a tombolo, which traps longshore sediment drift and may cause adverse effects,
leading to beach sediment starvation and increased erosion downdrift. This may then lead to further
engineering protection being needed downdrift of the breakwater development.

In general, expert advice should always be sought before embarking on the design of a
breakwater cross-section. As was mentioned earlier, waves are one of nature’s least understood
phenomena and considerable experience is required when designing breakwaters. If expert advice is not
available, the following rules of thumb may be applied to very small projects with water depths not
exceeding 3.0 metres: For rubble mound or rock breakwaters:

• Unaided breakwater design should not be attempted in waters deeper than 3 metres.

• If the foundation material is very soft and thick, then a geotextile filter mat should be placed under the
rock to prevent it from sinking and disappearing into the mud (Figure 8).

• If a thin layer of loose or soft material exists above a hard layer, then this should be removed to expose
the hard interface and the breakwater built on this surface.

• The material grading should be in the range of 1 to 500 kilograms for the fine core, 500 to 1 000
kilograms for the underlayer and 1 000 to 3 000 kilograms for the main armour layer, Figure 9.

• Dust and fine particles should not be placed in the core as these will wash away and cause the
breakwater top to settle unevenly.
• The outer slope should not be steeper than 1 on 2 and the inner or harbour side slope not steeper than
1 on 1.5 (Figure 8).

• In general, rock breakwaters absorb most of the wave energy that falls on them and reflect very little
disturbance back from the sloping surface. For solid or vertical breakwaters:

• Unaided vertical solid breakwater design should not be attempted in waters deeper than 2 metres and
exposed to strong wave action, Figure 10.

• Vertical solid breakwaters are only suitable when the foundation is a firm surface (rock, stiff clay, coral
reef); thick sand deposits may also be suitable under certain conditions.

• In the presence of thick sand deposits, a rubble foundation with adequate scour protection as shown in
Figure 10 is recommended lest strong tidal streams, water currents or wave turbulence scour away the
sand underneath the foundation.

• The core of a solid breakwater should be cast in concrete; not more than 50 percent of this concrete
may be replaced by pieces of rock or “plums”.

Great care should be exercised when deciding the position of a solid breakwater. Solid vertical
breakwaters do not absorb wave energy incident on them and reflect everything back, usually causing
other parts of a harbour to experience “choppy-sea” conditions.

1. CONSTRUCTION METHODS

There are several types of equipment available for marine construction, both land-based and
floating. The high cost of purchase, however, puts most of this equipment beyond the reach of village
cooperatives, artisanal contractors and small general-building contractors. Hence, it is assumed that
most of the heavy plant will be made available through the government or public works department, or
local contractors, and this chapter should be used as a guide to the general type of equipment required
for marine work. Large specialist marine contractors often use floating equipment (all cranes mounted on
barges, for example, and material like the core is often dumped using barges). When planning the
construction of a marine-related project, it would be useful to know beforehand what type.

1.1 Methodologies

The typical breakwater illustrated in Figure 8 (shallow water only) consists of a mound of coarse
stone, also known as a core, covered or protected by blankets or layers of heavier stones.
7.2.3.1

1.1.1 The core

The core typically consists of stone weighing between 1 kilogram and 500 kilograms, without the
fine particles (dust and sand) dumped in a heap out into the sea by a dump truck. To facilitate
dumping by truck, the core should be ideally four to five metres wide at the top and
approximately half a metre above mean sea level or, in the presence of a large tidal range,
above high water spring level, Figure 17a. The top of the core should be kept level and uniform
by a bulldozer to enable the dump trucks to travel the entire length of the breakwater. When
tipped into the water, the core rubble comes to rest at a slope of approximately 1 on 1, i.e. it
drops down 1 metre in level for every 1 metre forward. The rubble in the core is very light, so
breakwaters should be built during calm weather only. Environmentally speaking, the core
dumping may have a large negative impact on the surrounding sea due to the fine dust that gets
washed off the rubble. In environmentally sensitive areas, such as coral reefs, protected fish
breeding areas and nursery grounds rich in certain species of protected vegetation such as
Posidonia sea grass, the core must be sluiced or washed before placing to limit the dust plume
that would otherwise be generated by the fine dust particles. This dust plume usually persists for
many days and can cause a lot of damage by either blocking out sunlight or depositing fine dust
on the gills of fish and suffocating them.
1.1.2 The underlayer

The underlayer of stone that protects the core rubble from being washed away, Figure 17b,
usually consists of single pieces of stone whose weight varies between a minimum of half a
tonne (500 kilograms) to a maximum of one tonne (1 000 kilograms). These are usually laid in a
minimum of two layers at a slope which is generally shallower than that of the core; 2/1 on the
outer slope and 1.5/1 on the inner slope. A slope of 2/1 means that the level drops 1 metre for
every 2 metres forward.

The first layer of stone may be placed by a hydraulic excavator as shown in Figure 17c. The
excavator should place the heavier stone as quickly as possible without leaving too much core
rubble exposed to wave action. If a storm strikes the site with too much core exposed, there is a
grave danger of the core being washed away and spread all over the intended port area. The
figure shows the set up for a given stone profile, in this case a slope of 2.5/1: the distance H is
the height of the top of the new sloping layer above the sea bed. A wooden pole should be
conveniently placed at the tip of the underlying core and cemented into place with mortar. At a
distance equal to 2.5 x H, a heavy stone sinker with a marker buoy should be placed on the sea
bed. A brightly coloured nylon string should then be strung from the sinker to the required height
on the pole. This procedure should be repeated every 5.0 metres to help the crane or excavator
operator with the placing of the top-most layer. A swimmer wearing goggles (and in cold waters a
wet suit) should ensure that each separate rock is placed within the profile outlined by the nylon
string.

The armour layer: The main armour layer, as its name implies, is the primary defence of the
breakwater against wave attack. The stone sizes for the cross-section in the shallow water
example should be in the range of 1 tonne (1 000 kilograms) to 3 tonnes (3 000 kilograms). Any
defects in the quality of the rock, grading (size too small) or placing (slope uneven or too steep)
will seriously put the whole breakwater at risk. Hence, great care must be taken when choosing
and placing the stone for the main armour layer. Figure 17c shows main armour stone being
placed by a crawler crane or tracked crane, which is by far the best equipment for placing large
stones. The large stones should be lifted singly using a sling or stone grapple and placed in the
water with the aid of a diver swimming over the placing area. The armour layer should be placed
stone by stone in a sequence which ensures interlocking; in the figure, for example, stone 2 is
held in place by stones 1 and 3 whereas stone 4 is jammed between stones 3 and 5. This
ensures that waves cannot pull one stone out and cause the upper stones to topple down the
slope, breach the armour layer and expose the smaller rubble underneath. To ensure proper
placing, the swimmer or boat crew should direct the crane operator each time a stone is placed
until the stone layer breaks the surface. As with the first underlayer, two layers of armour stones
are required to complete the main armour layer. Slope profiles should be set up at regular 5
metre intervals using the same procedure as described previously. Figure 17d, bottom, shows
how the nearly complete breakwater is closed off layer by layer. It shows the excavator
backtracking to the root of the breakwater closing the top layers simultaneously. The end or head
of the breakwater is the most delicate part of the breakwater and requires extra care. The o uter
slope of 2.5/1 should be increased to 3/1 to improve its stability. 7.2.3.4 Solid breakwater

Figure 19 illustrates how a vertical, solid breakwater may be built. A stone rubble foundation
should first be laid on a hard sea bed (rock, coral deposits or stiff clay) using the appropriate
equipment illustrated in Figure 18. If the foundation is a thick deposit of good sand (no silt or soft
clay or mud), then a geotextile filter mat should be placed under the rubble foundation. The
rubble should consist of a well-graded mix of 1- to 5-kilogram stones. A temporary profile of the
proposed section should then be erected every 2 or 3 metres as shown in Figure 19. Concrete
filled jute bags, or locally available dressed stone, should then be laid on the rubble foundation,
in line with the temporary profiles. Mass concrete should then be poured into the central cavity to
form a solid structure. The deck and wave wall may be built to suit local conditions or as shown
in the figure. Finally, after the removal
 of the temporary profiles, the sea side face of the breakwater foundation should be protected
against wave scour by the application of concrete-filled jute bags as shown. In the case of a
sandy bottom, these bags should come to rest on the geotextile filter. Bollards may then be cast
into the deck as desired.

2. FLOATING BREAKWATERS

To be effective as a breakwater, the motions of a floating structure must be of small amplitude so

that the structure does not generate waves into the protected harbour side. Although at resonance the
oncoming waves can be out of phase with the transmitted waves (resulting in lower coefficients of
transmission), the structure must respond to a spectrum of incident wave conditions. Hence, the design
of a floating structure for resonance characteristics only is not possible given the wide spectrum of ocean
waves. The simplest forms of floating breakwaters are pontoon structures, although various modifications
to their shape have been investigated in an effort to optimize the mass (and ultimately the cost).

The efficiency of a floating breakwater depends primarily on the ratio of the width of the pontoon
to the wavelength of the oncoming waves (Figure 20) and, given that ocean swell has a very long
wavelength, floating breakwaters are not suitable for creating protected areas along an exposed
coastline and should never be installed. However, on lake shores, where the waves tend to be very short
(choppy) and do not generally exceed 0.50 metre, floating breakwaters tend to work efficiently.
 References:
 https://www.vims.edu/research/departments/physical/programs/ssp/shoreline_management/break
waters/introduction/index.php
 http://www.fao.org/3/i1883e/i1883e07.pdf
 https://www.slideshare.net/MAamerRaza/breakwaters-and-types
 https://www.vims.edu/research/departments/physical/programs/ssp/shoreline_management/break
waters/systems/index.php
 http://www.fao.org/3/i1883e/i1883e07.pdf