Hydraulic and structural stability of concrete armor units

The hydraulic and structural stability of concrete armor units in waves are examined. Wave force models which include the effects of drag, inertia, buoyancy and wave slamming are developed. The resulting stresses in the concrete armor units due to wave forces are calculated from three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) analyses. The equations of motion associated with the wave forces are integrated to determine the resulting rigid body motions. The wave induced motions result in structural impacts which can cause very large stresses in the unit. The wave conditions yielding critical impact velocities were established from the wave force model and FEM analyses.