Suitable Wave-Height Parameter for Characterizing Breakwater Stability

Abstract

The description of a sea state just by its variance spectral density and duration is not enough to analyze the stability of rubble-mound breakwaters, since it does not include an adequate characterization of the large waves in that sea state. Numerical simulation has been used to demonstrate that different time domain characteristics result from the simulation of a sea state solely defined by its spectrum and its duration. As a result, it is also possible to obtain drastically different damage values on a given breakwater. A relationship between the groupiness factor and some extreme wave-height parameters such as