Stability of submerged rock berms exposed to motion of liquefied soil in waves

The paper describes the results of an experimental study on the behaviour of a submerged rock berm in liquefied backfill soil. The soil is liquefied by waves, and the rock berm is subject to the orbital motion of the liquefied soil. The soil used in the experiments was silt with d50=0.075 mm. Various berm materials were used, stones of size 0.74–2.5 cm, plastic balls of size 3.6 cm, brass of size 2.5 cm and steel of size 1.0 cm. The experiments show that rock berms that are stable under very large waves can be unstable when they are exposed to the motion of liquefied soil. The limited data obtained in the study were plotted as a function of the mobility number versus the Keulegan–Carpenter number for the range of the Reynolds number of the tests. The critical mobility number corresponding to the incipient motion of the berm stones is determined. Recommendations are made as to how the present findings can be implemented in practice.