Breakwaters : strenght of concrete armour units : executive summary

Major failures of breakwaters, with slender armour units between 20 and 60 tons, in the late seventies and early eighties, made it known that the strength of these units had become a critical factor which had not been considered in the designs. In most cases mechanical failure of the armour units had caused the final collapse of the breakwater. In order to investigate the problem systematically and to develop procedures for design and construction of larger size concrete armour units, a group of Dutch research institutes, consultants and contractors initiated a research programme. This executive summary gives an overview of the study and presents the main results.