Bonded porous revetments - Effect of porosity on wave-induced loads and hydraulic performance

Abstract

The porosity and roughness of bonded revetments are both crucial for the hydraulic performance and the wave loading of the revetment and its foundation, and thus for the stability and durability of the entire structure. This is briefly shown by the selected results of a tentative comparative analysis of two large-scale test series performed in the Large Wave Flume (GWK) Hanover with two significantly different revetments: a highly porous and rough polyurethane bonded aggregate (PBA) revetment and an almost impermeable and relatively smooth interlocked pattern placed block (IPPB) revetment. These results motivated the initiation of the three years research project BoPoRe (Bonded Porous Revetments) which has the primary objective to investigate more systematically and separately the relative importance of both porosity and roughness for different slope steepnesses. This project is briefly introduced and the first results of preliminary scale model tests using 9 configurations for the porosity and roughness of the revetment subject to a wide range of wave conditions (surf similarity parameters ζm 1,0 0 = 0.93-7.21) are briefly discussed.