Armor stability of hardly (or partly) reshaping berm breakwaters

• This paper deals with stability of hardly (or partly) reshaping berm breakwaters.
• The main goal of the present paper is to provide an estimation technique based on this physical principle to predict the deformation of the front slope in terms of the eroded area.
• It is found that by using the maximum wave momentum flux approach the damage to the front slope (eroded area) can be very well predicted.
• A simple method to estimate the eroded area based on measured or calculated berm recession (Rec) and depth of intersection of reshaped and initial profile (hf) is presented.
• The performance of the simple method based on measured data of Rec and hf is better than the presented stability equation based on wave momentum flux parameter.

This paper deals with stability of hardly (or partly) reshaping berm breakwaters. A simple physical argument is used to derive a new stability formula based on the assumption that the maximum wave force causing damage of armor layer is proportional to the maximum wave momentum flux near the structure toe. The main goal of the present paper is to provide an estimation technique based on this physical principle to predict the deformation of the front slope in terms of the eroded area. The proposed method is verified by comparison with model test data. It is found that by using the maximum wave momentum flux approach the damage to the front slope (eroded area) can be very well predicted. Moreover, a simple method to estimate the eroded area based on measured or calculated berm recession (Rec) and depth of intersection of reshaped and initial profile (hf) is presented. The performance of the simple method based on measured data of Rec and hf is better than the presented stability equation based on wave momentum flux parameter. When using the best prediction formulae for recession and depth of intersection the simple method and the momentum flux stability equation provide similar uncertainty.