COST-EFFECTIVE OPTIMIZATION OF RUBBLE-MOUND 

 BREAKWATER CROSS SECTIONS 



PART I: INTRODUCTION 



Objectives 



1. The primary objective of this report is to introduce a systematic 

 method by which planners and designers of rubble-mound breakwaters, specifi- 

 cally those in the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) District offices, can 

 formulate an optimum cross-section configuration and verify its effectiveness, 

 both in terms of structural integrity and functional performance. Rubble- 

 mound breakwaters, the most common coastal structures worldwide, are built to 

 provide protection from direct wave attack to boat harbors (Figure 1) and to 

 port facilities. Recent advances in coastal oceanography have greatly im- 

 proved the understanding of wave generation, propagation, and transformation 

 into shallow water. These advances, along with greater availability of mea- 

 sured and hindcast wave data, have allowed procedures for design of rubble- 

 mound structures to become much more complex than in previous years. The 



Figure 1 . A rubble-mound breakwater protecting a boat harbor 



