Comparación experimental de la idoneidad de los parámetros H50t y H50i para la fórmula de la estabilidad de diques de escollera rebasables

An investigation on low-crested breakwater has been carried out using physical modeling with the objective of verifying the suitability of using the wave parameters H50t (average height of the 50 largest total waves) and H50i (average height of the 50 largest incident waves) in the stability formulations. Additionally, the dependence of the freeboard has been introduced in the mentioned formulations. Experimental tests have been performed on a breakwater structure with a core and a two-layer armour, for three freeboard levels (emerged, at still water level and submerged) at 1:50 scale. The measured and calculated damage values, S, have been compared, considering the different estimations based on the incident wave parameter H50i and the total wave parameter H50t. It has been shown that for the structure used in this work, the best fit was obtained using the parameter H50i. One possible reason for that is the fact that in the estimation of H50t the need to use a formula for the reflection coefficient R adds new dispersion results.