1 Introduction 



Background 



The U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Coastal and 

 Hydraulics Laboratory's' (CHL), Field Research Facility (FRF), located on 

 0.7 km^ at Duck, NC (Figure 1), consists of a 561-m-long research pier and 

 accompanjdng office and field support buildings. The FRF is located near 

 the middle of Currituck Spit along a 100-km unbroken stretch of shorehne 

 extending south of Rudee Inlet, VA, to Oregon Inlet, NC. The FRF is 

 bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Currituck Sound to the 

 west. The facility is designed to (a) provide a rigid platform fi-om which 

 waves, currents, water levels, and bottom elevations can be measured, 

 especially during severe storms; (b) provide CHL with field experience and 

 data to complement laboratory and analytical studies and numerical models; 



(c) provide a maimed field facility for testing new instrumentation; and 



(d) serve as a permanent field base of operations for physical and biological 

 studies of the site and adjacent region. 



The research pier is a reinforced concrete structure supported on 

 0.9-m-diam steel piles spaced 12.2 m apart along the pier's length and 

 4.6 m apart across the width. The piles are embedded approximately 20 m 

 below the ocean bottom. The pier deck is 6. 1 m wide and extends fi-om 

 behind the duneline to about the 6-m water depth contour at a height of 

 7.8 m above the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD). The pihngs 

 are protected against sand abrasion by concrete erosion collars and against 

 corrosion by a cathodic system. 



An FRF Measurements and Analysis Program has been established to 

 collect basic oceanographic and meteorological data at the site, reduce and 

 analyze these data, and publish the results. 



Fonnerly the Coastal Engineering Research Center 

 Chapter 1 Introduction 



