Civil Engineering Association

Breakwaters are constructed to provide a calm basin for ships and to protect harbor facilities. They are also sometimes used to protect the port area from the intrusion of littoral drift. In fact, for ports open to rough seas, breakwaters play a key role in port operations. Since sea waves have enormous power, the construction of structures to mitigate such power is not easily accomplished. The history of breakwaters, therefore, can be said to be one of much damage and many failures. On the other hand, maritime technology has progressed a great deal, especially since 1945, and this has gradually made it possible to construct breakwaters having high stability against waves. There are two main types of breakwaters: rubble mound and composite breakwaters. Rubble mound breakwaters have a rubble mound and an armor layer that usually consists of shape designed concrete blocks. Due to the development of these blocks, modern-day rubble mound breakwaters can strongly resist the destructive power of waves, even in deepwaters. Composite breakwaters consist of a rubble foundation and vertical wall, and are therefore classified as vertical breakwaters. By using caissons as the vertical wall, composite breakwaters provide an extremely stable structure even in rough, deep seas. Such strength has led to their use throughout the world. In this book, different types of breakwaters are introduced and their historical development is described in order to understand the advantages and disadvantages associated with each type of breakwater. The failures of breakwaters are then discussed to demonstrate crucial points in their stability design. Finally, the design methods used for vertical are explained including a new design concept of performance design for vertical breakwaters. Since the design methodology for rubble mound breakwaters has been addressed in many textbooks, the design of vertical breakwaters will be concentrated on here.