A new formula for the sea state and structural parameters influencing the stability of homogeneous reshaping berm breakwaters

The berm recession of a reshaping berm breakwater has a very important role for the stability of this kind of structure. Based on a 2D experimental modeling method in a wave flume, the recession of the berm due to sea state and structural parameters has been studied. Irregular waves with a JONSWAP spectrum were used. A total of 215 tests have been performed to cover the impact of sea state conditions such as wave height, wave period, storm duration and water depth at the toe of the structure, and structural parameters such as berm elevation from still water level, berm width and stone diameter on berm recession. In this paper, first a new dimensionless parameter is introduced to evaluate the combined effect of wave height and wave period on berm recession using results of the experimental work. Then, a formula that includes some sea state and structural parameters is derived using the new dimensionless parameter for estimating the berm recession. A comparison is made between the estimated berm recessions by this new formula and formulae given by other researchers to show the preference of using the new dimensionless parameter. The comparison shows that the recession estimated by the new formula has not only a better correlation with the present experimental data, but also has an improved correlation with other experimental results within the range of parameters tested. Outside the range of parameters tested the Lykke Andersen (2006) formula performed best.