Theoretical and experimental study on the placement of Xbloc® armour units

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental study on placement of single layer armour units, the study is performed with Xbloc. Parameters to assess quality of placement grid, like packing density and potential interlocking coefficient are presented. Recommende placement pattern for roundhead and curved sections is determined.

Introduction

Interlocking, single layer, concrete armour units for rubble mound breakwaters are placed on a staggered grid. Accurate placement is required for good interlocking and stable armour layer. The placement grid is distorted at the roundhead, therefore the placement pattern needs to be adjusted.No earlier studies were performed on optimum placement pattern at roundheads for single layer armour units. The objective of this study is to systematically analyse armour unit interaction and determine a constructible and stable placement pattern for roundheads.
The study is conducted in two parts; theoretical study and experimental study. The theoretical study is focused on the analysis of a placement grid and the experimental study is used to validate the theoretical study and design the placement grid prototype.
The study is performed with Xbloc as it is a typical single layer armour unit and the stability is less dependent on armour unit orientation then for other single layer armour units, therefore Xbloc appears more suitable for this kind of study.

327 downloads

placement-xbloc-armor-units.pdf