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Hydraulics Research
Wallingford

GUIDE TO CONCRETE DYKE REVETMENTS

Report No SR 6 5
December 1 9 8 5

Registered Office: Hydraulics Research Limited,

Wallingford, Oxfordshire OXl 0 8BA.
Telephone: 0491 35381. Telex: 848552
___________ ,_,__ _,,
 GUIDE TO CONCRETE DYKE REVETMENTS

Report No SR 65

Augus t 1 9 8 5

Note:

This document is an English translation of the Dutch repor t "Leid raad

cementbetonnen d i jkbekledinge n " , Rapport 1 1 9 , S ti chting voor onderz oek ,
voo r s chri f ten en kwali t e i t s ei s en op het gebied van be t on ( CUR-VB ) , Sep t embe r
1984 .

The t ranslation was performed by Mr C van B e e s t en , MS c , FICE , MIWE S ,

Cons ul t ing Engine e r , on behalf o f Hydraul i c s Re s earch Limi t ed , and wi th the
p e rmi s s i on and c o-operation of CUR-VB (Ne therlands C ommit tee f or Research ,
Codes and Specif icat ions for Concret e ) . The cost of the trans lation was
funded in part by the Minis t ry of Agricultur e , F i sheries and Foo d , unde r
the i r Re s earch Commi s s ion BA , S e a Def ence S tructures - Reve tments and
Breakwate r s .

Whi l s t all pos sible care has been t aken in carrying out the t rans lation ,
neither the translator nor Hydraulics Re s earch Limi ted can accep t
r e s p onsibility f or any mi sinterpretation whi ch may have arisen, o r for any
damage which might result from the use of the t ranslated repo r t .
"The Organi s at i on CUR-VB , the TAH and tho s e who have contributed to thi s
publ icat ion have applied the great est pos s ible carefulne s s in the
a s s imi lati on of the data and inf ormat i on contained in this publicatio n ;
the s e data p re s e nt the state of the technique at the time of publication .
Nevertheless the p o s s ibility should not be excluded that there are still
inaccuraci es contained in this publicat ion . Tho s e who make us e of thi s
publication , there f o re have to accept the r i s k . The Organi s ation CUR-VB and
the TAW exclud e , also on behalf of all tho s e who have collaborated on thi s
publicat i on , a l l r e spons ibility f o r damage which might result from the u s e
o f thes e data . "

ISBN - 9 0 2 1 2 6 0 6 2X
CONTENTS
Page

FOREWORD

SUMMARY

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 REVETMENT REQUIREHENTS TO BE MET 3

2.1 F uncti onal r equirements 3

2.2 Requirements f o r technical execut ion 4
2 .3 Management and maintenance requi rements 5
2 .4 Sp ecial requirement s 5

3 REVETMENT TYPES 5

3.1 General 5
3.2 Main cla s s i f icat ion 6

3 .2.1 Shape of concrete blocks 6

3 .2.2 P ermeability o f concrete revetment 8
3 . 2 .3 Relat i onship of concrete block revetment with
the permeability of the f oundat i on layer and
intermediate layer 8
3 .2.4 Pref abri cated mat s of concrete blo cks on
geotextile carriers 10

3 .3 Subdivision 10

3 .3 .1 Mechanical const ruct i on : yes or no ? 10

3 .3.2 Reinforced or mas s concrete 10
3 .3 .3 Concrete placed in- s itu or on- s it e manufactured
blocks 10
3 . 3 .4 Constructi on metho d : only above water or both
above and b elow wate r 11

4 CONCRETE TE CHNOLOGY 11

4 .1 General ll
4.2 Charac teristics of wet concrete mixe s and concrete 11
4 .3 Requirements , standards , and s p e c i f i cati ons 12
4 .4 Further explanation 13

5 REQUIREMENTS TO BE MET BY UNDER-LAYER 14

5.1 General 14
5.2 Watertight foundat ion laye r 15
5 .3 P ermeable underlaye rs 18

5 .3.1 Underlayers of g ranular mate rials 19

5 .3.2 Underlayers of bond ed granular mat erials 20

5 .4 Characte ristics of materials 21

 �------ �------- -

CONTENTS ( CONT ' D )

Page

5 . 4 .1 Clay 21
5.4.2 Colliery shale 23
5 .4 .3 Silex 24
5 .4 .4 Slag 24
5 .4.5 Geotextile cloth or membrane 25
5 .4 . 6 S and as phalt , bitumenised sand 25

5 . 5 Fi lter characteristics 26

5 . 5 .1 General 26
5 .5.2 Types of fi lt er 27
5 . 5 .3 S and-t ightness requi rements 29
5 .5 .4 Other requirements 30

5 .6 Quality control 31

6 LOADING ZONES ON EMBANKl1ENTS ( SEA WALL S ) 33

6 .1 S e awalls 33
6 .2 Embankments along lakes 35
6 .3 River embankments 35

7 EMBANKl·1ENT PROFILE 36

7 .1 Cro s s-section 36
7.2 Longitudinal prof ile 38

8 TRAN SITIONS AND BOUNDARIES 39

8 .1 Toe constructi on of revetment s 39

8.2 Top-edge to the hard revetment 41
8 .3 Trans iti ons to other revetments 42

9 CONSTRU CTION ASPECTS 45

9 .1 General 45
9.2 Product 45
9 .3 St· o rage and transport 45
9 .4 Construction 46

10 l1ANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE 46

10 .1 Inspections 46
10 . 2 Maint enance 47
10 . 3 Repair feas ibility 48
10 . 4 Re-use 49

11 HYDRAULIC BOUNDARY CONDITIONS 49

11 .1 General 49
11 . 2 Wave charact eri stics 50
CONTENTS ( CONT'D )
Page

1 1 . 2 .1 Individual waves 50
1 1 . 2 . 2 Local characteristics of the individual
wave-f ield 53

1 1 . 3 Wave deformati ons 54

1 1 . 3 . 1 Wave def ormation in f ront of embankments 54

1 1 . 3 . 2 Wave breaking on the bank-slope 56

12 PARTICULAR LOADS 59

13 STABILITY OF THE HAND-SET BLOCK REVETMENT 61

1 3 . 1 General 61
1 3 . 2 Loose lying element s 63

13 . 2 . 1 P e rmeable base layer 63

13 . 2 . 2 Imp ermeable unde rlayer 66

1 3 . 3 Interlocked o r f r iction b lock r evetment s

(tightly fitting blocks ) 67
1 3 . 4 Summary of r e s earch in the "Delta F lume" 68

14 SAFETY CONS IDERATIONS 69

14 . 1 General 69
14 . 2 Description of probabilistic method s 70
1 4 .3 Load and strength 73
14 .4 Safety level 75

15 REFERENCES 77
NOTATION

b t hickne s s of f i lter laye r

c wave cel erity

C
O
wave celerity in d eep wat e r

Co- cele rity of wave-gr oup s

0

D ==
s i eve o pening d iamet er for g ranular filt e r

d d iameter ; dept h o f water ; thickness r evetment b lo cks

E energy dens ity

Fs(S) load probabil ity function

FR(R) ==
strength probabi lity funct i o n

f f requency

g =
g ravitational accelerat i on

H wave h eight vert i cal water level variation

Hs s igni f icant wave height

le
=
cons istency index

Ip plasti c ity index

k fi lter layer permeability coef f i ci ent

k' revetment permeability coeff icient

L ==
wave length

La
wave length in d eep wat e r

n ripening f actor f or clay

0 largest orif ice in geot ext i le f ilter

R st ructural st rengt h

s =
structural l oading

T wave perio d

T ave rage wave period

x base variables
n

z saf ety funct ion

 -------� ·-·-····-·-�---····�·-····

NOTATION (CONT ' D )

a =
revetment slope angl e

safety coefficient

relative dens ity o f revetment material

leakage leng t h

wave-breaking paramet e r

vo lumet ric mas s o f the revetment

vo lumetric mass of wat e r

maximum p res sure under block revetment

GUIDE TO CONCRETE DYKE
REVETMENTS

F o reword
On the initiative o f the cont act-g r oup "We t hydraul i c
enginee ring " , whi ch includes representatives o f the
Dutch cement-indus try , the Government Public Works
Department , Techni cal Univer s i ty at Delft and the
Ag ri cultural Unive r s i ty of Wageningen , a deci s i on was
made to commence a s tudy on the sub j ect of concrete
block revetment on bank slopes , in coordination wi th
the "Techni cal Advisory Commi t te e on S ea and
Freshwat e r flood def ences (TAl-l ) , and the O rgani s a t i on
f o r res earch, specif ications and quality r equir ement s
f o r concrete ( CUR-VB ) . A s tudy-c ommi t t e e was f o rmed
f o r t hat purpo s e in 1 9 8 1 , whi ch - in TAW c onnec ti on -
i s s e t up by work-g roup 4 "Bank reve tment s " and - in
CUR-VB conne ction - by the inve s tigation-commi ttee C45
" Concrete bank reve tment s " . The Commi t t e e had the
task o f writing a guide concerning de sign ,
cons truction, management and maintenance o f concr e t e
block revetments.

The r ea s ons f o r this s tudy included : -

ther e were no s p e cific requirements f o rmulated

at that time ;

the p o s s ibilities f or appli ca t i on ( of blo cks )

arc det ermined by the p roduct systems placed
on the market by the manufac ture r s ; only
experi enced organi sations and management in
this field can pass j udgement on the
applicability o f the s e systems ;

the exi s ting gaps in the knowledge can l ead t o

over- o r under-dimens i oning ;

concret e block revetments can in future become

e conomi cally more a t t ractive than as phal t
revetments or natural s tone ( rock) and
concrete could the refore be ap plied more
f requently .

The re sul ts of the s tudy have been presented he re i n

the form of a guid e . This guide is primarily dire c t ed
to tho s e te chnical s t aff immediat e ly involved in
d e s ign and manageme nt , and employed by land-d rainage
boards ( "Water-Schappen" include land drainage and
banks ) , consul ting enginee rs , pr ovincial public wo rks
depa r tments and the Government public works
department . The guide is no t intended t o be a
s c ienti fic publ ication in which theo ret ical bases are
thor oughly di s cus s ed . I t has been at temp ted to
pres ent as much as p o s s ible o f the backgr ound
inf orma t ion wi thout providing a solution f o r each
---------------·····--·--·--

pos s ible problem. The lat t er is , in connection wi t h

d i f f erent circums tances ( geographical a s well a s
o ther aspects ) , no t only imp o s s ible but al so
undesirable , because it could re sult in an
inflexibility towards other so lutions .

The matters d i s cus s ed in this guide need to be viewed

as a summary of cri teria which have to be sati s f i ed in
the des i gn of a concrete block revetment . The a ccent
here is mo re on the behaviour of a concre t e block
reve tment under the inf luence of hydraulic loads and
on guide lines for the execution of the cons t ruc tion ,
t han on the cons iderations of concrete as a material .

In writ ing the guide , use has been made of recent l y

carri ed o u t res earch a t the (Delf t ) Hydrauli c s
Labo ratory and the (Delf t ) Soil Hechani c s Labora tory .
However , that res earch has no t yet pro gr e s s ed to the
extent that the s trength of various types of revetment
are known complet ely . This guide wil l , therefore ,
have to be mod if ied in due cour s e .

In order to keep the guide ( comparatively) concis e and

r eadable , many points have been treated rather
briefly . More background informat ion can be obtained
f r om the CUR-VB / C OW report "Background t o the guide
f or concret e-block bank revetment s " obt ainable f r om
COW ( Centre f o r Res earch into Sea def ences ) . In that
r eport the overall problem has been approached more
theore tically and extens ive references to litera ture
have been included . It shoul d , however , be s tres s ed
that this guide can be used as an independent uni t ,
wi thout needing the as s i s tance o f the o ther repo r t .
B o th the guide and the background report were wri t ten
by Ir G M Wol s ink .

The committee , at the time of publication of the

guid e , comp r i s ed the f o llowing members : -

P r o f e s s o r i r A Gle rum, Chairman Delf t Unive r s i t y

i r G M Wol s ink , Secretary D e l f t Univer s i t y
C C Bakker De H o o p B V
ir W Bandsma Government Public
Works Dep t ,
Roadcons truc tion
ir H Burger Gove rnment P W D
Wei rs & Sluices
ing M C P Cok Gebr . Van Oord B V
i r E H Eb bens Govt P W D , Centre
for Res earch on S e a
D e f ences
ing T J Leenkneg t Provincial P W D ,
Zeeland
ing M G M Pat Delft Unive r s i t y
ing L A Philipse Water board
( Drainage ) F ryslan
 X
/

SUMMARY*

This set of guidel ines is intended f or engineers and techni cians directly
a s s o ciated wi th the des ign and management of dykes . I t is no t intended as a
s cienti f ic wo rk dealing exhaus t ively with theoretical fundamentals . It has
been endeavoured as far as po s s i ble t o give background inf ormation without
o f f ering a s olution f or every conceivable p roblem . For a treatment of the s e
mat ters in great e r depth the reader is re ferr ed to CUR-VB/ COW report
" Background to the guide to concrete dyke revetments" ( 3 2 ) . With a view to
application more specifi cally in the Ne ther land s , the treatment of the
sub j e c t s is confined to the type of revetment compos ed, of relat ively smal l
uni t s

In the f i r s t part o f this century a c ons iderable amount of in-s i tu placing

of concrete - then s till a new material - was carried out , no t always wi th
f avourable resul t s . In due course the use o f precast concrete uni ts was
increas ingly ado pted (Chap ter 1 ) . At firs t , manual me thods were used for
producing them and p lac ing them on the s lopes to be pro�tected . The uni t s
were made i n a wide vari ety of shape s . Mechani zation was subsequently
introduced into the p roduct i on proces s , and the handling and ins t al la ti on o f
the unit s were al s o t o a great extent mechanized . I n conjunc tion wi th this
development the comp lexity and variety in the shapes of the unit s were
reduced .

For the revetment , i . e. the prote ctive covering , of a wat er-retaining

s t ructure requirements are f o rmulated with refe rence to the purpo s e of the
revetment , the technical f ea tures of cons t ructing i t , and p o s s ib le s pecial
ci r cums tances involved (Chapt e r 2 ) . Vari ous types of reve tment are
d i s t ingui shed with reference to the p roperties o f the unit s and of the b a s e
on which they are ins talled (Chap ter 3 ) . T h e mat erial-t echno logical
properties of concrete in a mar i time environment are only briefly
cons idered , because comprehens ive and readily ac ces s ible literature and
codes of practice are available on the sub j e ct ( Chap t er 4 ) .

Requirements a re applied t o the base layers of the revetment be cause the s e

are imp o r t ant i n maintaining i t s s t ability unde r wave action and i n ensuring
that the s t ructure will continue to func tion permanently (Chap ter 5 ) . In
this conne ction a dis tinction is drawn be tween perme able and impermeable
bases . Research carried out a t the (Delf t ) Hydraulic Engine ering Laboratory
has shown that an impermeable layer (clay ) gives the revetment greater
s t ability under wave attack than a permeable layer does . In order to d erive
las t ing advant age from this greater stabili t y , it is nece s sary to lay down
requirements as to the mat erial properties and the manner of use of the
clay , while the ci rcums tances of the job may impose re s triction s on
applicabili ty .

It is s tated what materials can sui tably be used f o r a permeab le layer and
what requi rements they mus t s a t i s f y , more par t i cularly wi th regard t o
pene tration of mat erial from the subgrade into the f i lter material .

Wave a t t ack ,, which is a ma j or factor governing the s tability of the

revetment , has a diff erent f requency of occurrence at each level o f the
s l ope and var ies in magnitud e . This depend s on the type of dyke concerned ,
eg, a sea dyke , and on many other factors . These ma tters are explained wi t h
refe rence t o def ined zo nes o f load ing (Chapter 6).

* F rom English summary incorporated in the Dutch report

The shape of the cros s-sectional profile of the dyke is of influence on the
type o f concrete unit suitable for revetment c onstruction ( Chap ter 7).

In the experience of many dyke managers , subs tantial damage is liable t o

o c cur a t the trans i t ion from one type of revetment t o ano ther and i n zones
whe re the reve tment end s . Although it is not p racticable to g ive standard
s olutions , outright mi s t akes can be high-lighted . The toe cons t ruct i on , the
upper boundary of the hard revetment and the trans ition to a diferent type
of revetment are cons idered ( Chap ter 8 ) .

The next two chap t e rs are concerned wi th cons truction ( Chap ter 9) and with
management and maint enance ( C hap ter 1 0 ) .

The loads acting on the s t ructure and i t s s treng th are then considered .
Firs t , the hydraulic boundary conditions such as wave charac ter i s ti c s , wave
f ield s and wave def ormations ( including the breaking of wave s ) are dealt
with ( Chap ter 11 ) ; next , special load s are reviewed ( Chap ter 1 2 ) .

As an interim r esult of long-term res ear ch s till in progre s s , s ome

inf o rmation concerning the s tabili ty of the ins talled revetment is given
( Chap t e r 1 3 ) . On the one hand , resul t s o f theoreti cal model s tudies and , o n
t h e o ther , results of recent res earch i n a wave flume ( 1 : 2 linear scal e ) are
report ed . B ecause of the complexi ty o f the sub j ect there is as yet no
s imple- t o-use mathematical model available for dealing with various kinds o f
revetment and subgrade . All t h e s ame , with t h e aid of the d a t a yielded b y
emp irical research it is possible t o determine approximately t h e thicknes s
o f one o f the given type s of revetment .

B o th the magni tude and the location of the load acting on the revetment , a s
well a s the s t rength of the revetment a s ins talled o n the dyke slope , are
sub j e c t to s catte r . Particular values have a particular p robabili ty of
being exceeded or of not being attained . Safety cons iderati ons are
p r es ented wi th reference t o this ( Chap ter 1 4 ) . I t is indicated what
approach might be possible wi th a view to ob taining a better understanding
of the actual s af e ty of a concrete revetment on a dyke . Linking up with the
work of the Delta Commi s s ion, an order o f magnitude f o r the saf ety level is
g iven .
1 INTRODUCTION
The reve tment of an embankment will be def ined in the
context o f this guide as that part of the to tal
covering layer that is loaded directly by the wave s .
Under the r evetment is a sub-layer of clay , g ranular
material or b i tumeni s ed s and which in the mor e mod e rn
embankments f o rms the protection for the s and body o f
the core . An int e rmediate layer somet imes exi s t s
between cover and sub-layer .

In order to me et the r equi rement f o r the cohe s i onl e s s

g ranular ma terial t o let no sand through , geo t extile
clo ths or sheets can be added to the cons t ruc t i on.

The purpos e o f the reve tment of an embankment i s , i n

conjunct ion with the sub-laye r , t o protect the body o f
the bank against eros ion due to waves , currents and
o ther mo re particular loads such as ice dri f t s .

The a t t ention in this guide will be mainly direc ted t o

s ea-walls ( embankment s along the s ea ) ; only occas i onal
reference will be made to lake and river banks .

The f i r s t use of concrete in appli cations t o

s trengthen and pro t e c t s ea defences dates back t o the
beginning o f this c en tury . F i r s t use was p robably to
fix old and worn slo pes of hand-placed natural s tone
or r o ck by f illing holes with concrete . Thi s produced
a dense and closed surfac e , but als o made a rigid
monolith which left the whole cons t ruction no freedom
o f movement s o that any l o s s of sub-layer material or
s o il could lead to breaks in the sub-s oil . The
original flexi bili t y of the s tone cover was thus
los t .

The r esults obtained wi th concrete wer e , in gene ral ,

init ially not satis factory , whi ch could be as cribed t o
the r i g i d i ty o f early applications but also to the
inadequate knowledge o f the ap propriate conc rete mixes
t o achieve a s trong and d ense concrete . Many
d i sappo intment s o c curred , especi ally when fresh
conc r e t e , placed in s i tu , came into contact wi th
s ea water (b elow and immediately above high wate r ) .
The slopes thus t reated began to look shabby a f t e r a
sho r t period of time .

Precast conc rete blocks were in the past also o f ten

manufac tured on s i t e . Again as a re sult of
insuf f i ci ent knowledge of concrete as a mate rial ,
careles s produc tion (unskilled labour , inadequate
equipment , etc) the blocks were�a nd damaged
by wave impact , and such blocks would fall apart and
return to loo s e aggregate s tate .

In cho o s ing the shape of blocks a lot of attention was

paid in the pas t to a dens e and yet flexible link

1
be tween the elements of the revetment , in orde r to
give the s lope const ruc tion suff icient elas ticity t o
pe rmi t some settleme nt o f the founda tion . Sys tems
which did exis t in the past as marketable uni t s wi t h
a l l sorts of ref ined shap es t o int erlo ck have largely
disappeared for economic reasons . The complicated
shapes .made mechanical manufacture often diff icult if
not impos sible , whi lst during the revetment
construc tion the placing of such blocks was equally
diff icult . From the s tart of concrete block
application unt il about 19 6 5 , the placing of blo cks
remained almo st exclus ively a hand operation . Each
block was placed individually , by one or two men
depending on the weigh t , by hand on the bank s lope .
The rate of produc tion o f such reve tment s , using the
larger blocks , was not great . As the construction
work s increased in s iz e , made poss ible by fas ter
delivery of sand ( f or bank core s ) and greater
mechani s ation to reduce labour co s t s , a s earch had to
be made for a fas ter me thod o f p lacing . It is the us e
of s pecial block clamp s , wit h the ability to hand le
s everal blocks in one operation, which p ermi t ted
greater product ion by placing them on previously
p repared parts of the bank slope .

The manufac ture o f concrete s lope revetments o r

individual blocks , in s i tu where they are needed f o r
cons t ruction, and e sp e cially pouring concrete i n the
t idal zone , has to be dis couraged acco rding to
experience . Only when p roduc tion takes place in
concrete block factories where the mixed concr e t e can
be pres sed , vibrated or shaken , can satis fac tory
results be exp ected from normal concret e . Cas ting
concrete in s i tu in the tidal z one can exceptionally
b e tolerated as a result of mo re recent developmen t s
i n the f ield o f s pe cial "under-water-concrete " .

In this type of concr e t e , special add itives and / o r

preparation produce a greater res i s tance agains t
s egregat ion during pouring ( eg colloidal concret e ) .

The choice ( type and d imens i ons ) of the concrete block

revetments completed s o far depends only on exp eri ence
factors and on pers onal j udgement or p reference .
Ob j ective design cr i t eria have no t been available .
This means that in s i tuations where little or no
experience has been gained , ie for extreme loading
conditions ( super s to rm s ) the que s tion can be put
whe ther the design is in fact technically and
e conomically the correct one ( no t too light nor too
ext remely heavy ) .

Th is guide-line hopes to f orm a contribution t owards a

more reliable me thod of des ign for a concrete block
revetment . However , due to the complexities of the
sub j e c t matter , there are as yet no s imple compute r

2
 models available to calculate the reve tment s tabi l i ty
under wave at tack . Res earch for this purpo s e at the
Hyd raulics Laboratory and Soil Mechani cs Laboratory
( at Delft , Netherland s ) will perhaps in the long e r
term produce a prac t ically useful way t o d o i t . In
the meantime it is po s s ib le to use with advantage the
results of tests carried out in a wave-flume as
presented in Chap ter 1 3 . For the larger bank
prot ec tion pro j ec t s it migh t be useful to tes t the
bank slope with reve tment , t ogether with the
corres ponding boundary cond i t ions , to the larg es t
p o s s i ble s cale in a wave flume .

2 REVBTMENT
REQUIREMENTS
TO BE MET

2 .1 Functional
r equir ements
In accordance wit h the pur p o s e of the reve tment on a
s ea wall , ie to form a p r o t ec ti on for the body of the
embankment , the following funct ional requirements need
to be s tated : -

(a) The r evetment mus t b e able t o r e s is t :

the combinat i on of wave and flow attacks ;

the forces exerted by drift- i ce , i c e

frozen t o the reve tment , etc .

excess pore water p r e s sures exe rted from

the bank due to a rais ed phreatic ( g round
water ) l evel .

(b) The underlying s o i l par ticles mus t b e

re taine d ; t h e revetmen t , together with any
filter - con s t ruct i on p re s ent , must p revent
migration of tho s e soil par t i c le s . The
reve tment must also prot ect the filter
const ruction agains t wash-o ut .

(c) The revetment has to be durable , ie i t has t o

res is t erosion due t o materials being carried
in the flows over it ( sand , g rave l , etc) and
agains t fro s t and chemi cal action .

(d) In order to retain its purpo s e fully , it i s

important that the revetment can mo uld it self
to pos s ib le form changes of the slope
( se t tlement and/or scour ) without des t roying
the bond of the revetment surface . When the
sub soil settles lo cally , or is eroded , o r
d i s turbed b y animal burrows , and the reve t1nent
canno t ad jus t to the new contours , ho llows�are
created under the revetment , so that the
 cons truct ion is s eriously weakened , for
ins tance under an external loading of breaking
wave impac t . A s trong int erlock between
concrete e lements , p revent ing s et t lement o f
the elements int o ho llows undernea th , can b e a
d i sadvantage in this context ( s ee also para
7 .1 ) .

On the o ther hand , such s t r ong int erlock

between element s on a s ound f oundat ion will
p rovide greater s tability under wave attack
than can be p r ovided by blo cks which int erlink
only by means of frict ion

Flexibility and s tability requi rements und e r

wave attack are thus s e e n to b e cont rad i c tory .
In p ract i ce the b e s t p o s s ib le comp romi s e
s o lut ion would have to be adop t ed.

(e) The whole of the revetment and f oundat i on s o i l

mus t b e s t ab l e agains t slipp ing .

2.2 R equi rements f or

technical
execu t i on
In order to achieve the opt imum cons truct ion costs ,
the f o llowing r equir ements could be f rame d : -

( a) The revetment has t o be quick and easy t o

p lace , preferably b y mechani cal means . For
the con s t ruction o f s ea defence works only , a
l imit ed period of the year (April to October ) i s
available ( ou t s ide the s t orm s eason ) . F or
the zone of daily tides the requir ement f o r
rapid p lacement i s even more obvious .

(b) The revetment has to be such that s et t ing out and

measurement can be carried out eas i ly , especial ly
f or non-s traight bank alignments.

There are , however , s y s t ems of revetment with uni t

shapes which require very accurate placing , becaus e
the to lerances are virtually ni l . A typi cal examp le
i s illus trated in Fig 1. This sys tem does no t allow
deviations f rom a s t raight l ine . Curved work in such
cases can only be execu ted with in-s itu connect ing
p ours of fresh concrete between short lengths of
s t raight alignment s . Thi s does no t look particularly
at t ractive , whi ls t the concrete quality as well as the
behaviour under loads and sett lement s can be
d i f f e rent .

By l eaving joints " open" it is p o s s ible with many

sys tems , within ce rtain limit s , to place units around
a longitudinal curve . When the curves are reas onably
easy , such open join t s in a revetment on a granular

4
 r-rT--.-"

trrn
s i d e view front view

p la n view

Fig. 1. Example of a system in which there is little freedom in dimensional co-ordination.

Mechanized placing of concrete units.
 f i l t e r of suff icient coarsene s s need no t give ri s e to
p roblems . Clay as the under layer is less suitable in
thes e si tuat ions .

Any " barrel" curvatur e , ie a curved slope in the

vert ical sens e , needs to be small so that the movement
and s e t tlement of blocks is not obs truc t e d , as that
could reduce s tabi l i t y of the blocks .

2 .3 Management and
maintenance
requirements
For a revetment to mee t the requirement to provide a
durable protection, the following demands need to b e
fulfilled :

(a) When unexpe c t ed damage occurs lo cally , it i s

important that the revetment can b e re paired
quickly and easily .

(b) The revetment mus t no t be too easily damaged

by vandal s .

2 .4 S pe cial
Requi r emen t s
Local circums tances could lead to one or mo re of the
f o llowing requiremen t s .

(a) Where an embankment is liable to be sub j ected

t o frequently occurring wave at tack , i t can be
useful t o reduce the wave-runup above the
revetment by means of specially shaped blocks
(wi th pro j e c t ions or void s ) .

(b) Temporary reve tments should as much a s

p o s sible b e o f block type s which can be
re-used e l s ewhe r e .

(c) Special requi rements on the s urface t reatment

of the blocks in order to fit better into
areas of environmental importanc e .

(d) The reve tment toge ther with the f oundation

layer some t imes has to be water tight when
embankments have to stand up to high
wa ter leve ls for longer periods .

3 REVETMENT TYPES

3 .1 Gene ral
For the choice from various alt erna tives in a given
si tuation, the j udgement crit eria to be formulated can
f o llow the requireme nt s outl ined in Chapter 2 .
Because the vari ous te chnical criteria are not all o f
equal importance , their signifi cance will have to be
we ight ed . Finall y , the va rious alt ernatives will be

5
 checked agains t the judg ement criteria and the
weight ing factors , thus producing a technical
evaluation . For further cons idera t ions on this me thod
of a s s e s sment , the reader is dire cted to the
CUR-VB/ COW report "Background to the guide on concrete
block reve tmen t s " (Ref 3 2 ) .
;

For the clas s i f ication of concrete block revetment s

various asp e c t s can be selected such as the f ollowing
maj o r division :

According to block shap e ;

- Ac co rding to poros i ty ;

- According to the relationship b e tween the

p oros ity of the bas e layer and the int ermediate
layer if any ;

According to the comb ination o f p re fabricated

c oncre t e mats wit h art if icial f ib r e carriers
and /or cables .

The f o llowing could be named as S ub-divi sions :

Mechanical p lacing : yes o r no ;

reinf orced or mas s concre t e ;

- p re f abricated or cas t-in-s i tu concret e ;

- plac ement : only above water , or above and below

water .

3.2 Main
c la s s if ication

Shape of
concrete
b lo cks
The elements can be sub-divided into:

- block and column shaped elements ;

- p late or tile shaped element s ;

- uninte rrup t ed plate shape ( cont inuous mono lithi c

pour ) .

Block and column shaped e l ement s

In the Ne therland s the s e shapes are mainly used . The

block shaped e lements can be sub-d ivided in accordance
with the g iven shape , the interlocking be tween blocks
in relation to the po s s ibility of comparative movement

6
of one block to another , the locking action , the
degree of wave run-up reduction provided , etc. Block
s haped elements are usually made with gravel
aggregate , but also with basalt as coarse aggregate t o
increase weigh t . F o r aes thetic or envi ronmental
reasons the blocks can be was hed when freshly cast to
show expo s ed aggregate , o r some t ime s provid ed with an
addi t ional basal t-aggregate surface layer f o r
d i f f erent aggregate expo s ure . The mos t common block
e lement dimens i ons in p lan a re 0 . 50 m x 0 . 50 m or
0 . 2 5 m x 0 . 30 m, but 0 . 3 0 m x 0 . 30 m and
0 . 25 m x 0 . 25 m also o ccur . Matching thicknes s e s
usually range be tween 0 . 1 5 m and 0 . 30 m. Bl ocks are
commonly p laced on the s lope in a s taggered
ve rtical-j o int patt ern ( s e e top left hand photograp h ,
next page ) .

The column or p o lygon shaped e l ements can , depending

on the produc e r , be regular or irregular in shape .
These elements d e r ive their s tr ength as reve tment
mat erial nowadays mainly by means of the j oint f il ling
mat erial whi ch has t o take care of the interlock
f ri c t io n . The columns should therefore be made such
that j oint f illers can be applied.

In the past all manner o f revetments with interlocking

blocks were put on the market , with elements "hooking "
toge ther . Due to problems wi th dimens ioning accuracy
and automatic f abrica t ion , this type is no longer in
use* .

The height o f column r evetment blocks ranges in

practice f rom 0 . 20 m to 0 . 50 m, and is als o express e d
i n weight per m 2 • Joint f iller materials used are
gravel , broken s tone , rubble and non-hydraulic s lag .
Maximum d imensi ons of the individual j oint f iller
g ranules should be in acco rdance with the average
s paces between co lumns . A s p read in grain s izes o f
the j oint f illers produces better resul ts agains t
waves washing the j o ints clean .

Plate shaped e l ement s

Solid plate shaped e lements are rarely if ever used i n

t h e Nethe rlands . However , slab shaped blo cks with
ho les f or vege tative g r owth are used on a large s cale .
In addition to the ho les there are al so shallow
gro oves in the upper surface s , linking the hole s . I f

Translato r ' s no te :

* This comment p re s umably ref ers to the Netherland s .

7
Some types of revetment.
 all ho les and groove s are filled wi th clay** and all
clay is thoroughly roo ted with g rass a s tr ong
reve tment could resul t . The s labs are usually 0 . 40 m
x 0 . 40 m or 0 . 40 m x 0 . 60 m in p lan dimens ions with
thickne s s rangi ng from 0 . 0 9 t o and including 0 . 1 5 m.
This type of revetment can be placed by hand as well
as mechani cally , and is commonly placed well above the
influence of the daily tides .

Cont inuous concrete s l a b

The cont inuous concrete slab is rarely i f ever u s e d i n

t h e Ne therlands because of the danger o f uneven
s e t t lement and soil ero sion . It is s t ill used on a
large scale els ewhere .

3.2.2 Permeab ili ty of

concrete
reve tment
The revetment can be:

- c lo s ed or nearly c l o s e d ;

open .

The permeability of t ightly fitt ing blocks can b e

r egarded a s ver y small in comparison wi th the
permeability of the under-layer . To make such
revetments mor e pervi ous , the block shaped element s
can be supplied with chamfered corners and / or no tche s
in the sides of the blo cks . That will in addit ion
permit filling wi th j o int mat erial to provide
addit i onal int erlo cking ac t i on .

Permeability of column shaped e lements wi th j oint

filler mat erials ( granular ) is large in compari s on
with the underlaye r , and the revetment is cla s s ified
as very open . If that type of revetment is penetrated
with a hot poured bitumen , a comple tely closed
reve tment will resul t .

3 . 2.3 Relationship
of concr e t e
block reve tment
with the
permeab ility of
the foundat ion
layer and the
intermediate
layer
How the hyd rauli c loading s act on the reve tment cannot
be seen in iso lation from the mutual relationship of

** Clay is us ed in the Dutch text and it may be

Dut ch prac tice , although it may not be the bes t
s o il for g r owing grass ( no t e from t rans lator ) .

8
the permeabilities of the f ounda t i on , the intermediate
layer and the revetment ( se e also Chapter 1 3 ) . The
s elect ion of the concrete blo ck reve tment is
accordingly determined largely by that relationship .

The f o l lowing d i f f erences can be noted ( s ee figs 2 t o

9) :

o pen revetment on permeable intermed iate layer and

impermeable f oundation;

open revetment on permeab le intermediate layer and

permeable f ounda tion ;

open revetment wi thout intermediate layer on

p ermeable foundat ion ;

closely-placed revetment wi th o r without permeable

intermediate layer on permeable f oundation;

- d i t to - on permeable intermediate layer with

impermeable found a t i on;

- ditto - wi thout int ermediate layer on impermeable

f oundation;

closed revetment on impermeable intermediate laye r

wi th impermeable foundation;

grassed revetment on impermeable f oundati on .

F igures 2 to 9 o f f er only s ome examples of p o s s i b l e

types of cons truct i on , wi thout attempting t o b e
exhaus tive; they s hould there f o r e n o t be interpreted
a s s tandard cons t ructions .

B e cause blocks laid direct on an impermeabl e

f oundation (clay) are more s table under wave-at t ack ,
thi s type of c ons t ru c t i on can be p refe rred . It i s ,
however , not always poss ible or desirable to apply
that cons t ru c t i on .

At the lower l evels in the t idal z one the e r o s i o n

re s i s t ance of clay and t h e cons truction operat i on f o r
a p laced type o f revetment a r e uncertain, whil s t in
addi t i on in cas es of pos s ib le por e-water pre s sures in
the body o f the bank a permeable f oundation layer is
e s s ential . The necessary requirement s for clay are
des cribed in paragraphs 5 . 2 and 5 . 4 .1 .

Where in the F igs 2 to 9 reference is made t o

geotextile in bracke t s , i t may a l s o b e omi t t e d from
the cons t ruct i o n . In c onnec t i on wi th s i t e
cons t ruction work the g e o t extile can provid e a cover
to make placement o f the sub s e quent layer eas i e r ; the
geo textile forms in that case a protec tion role - a
s e parator agains t accidental mixing of mat erial s .

9
 I'
I
; t- polygonal
i--l
columns
I -0'

<2.- granular intermediate layer

of gravel or broken stone

::::.r�F-t---t-H--t--H _____ \
\� ( �:: ::
- woven geotextile
0 i n
)

- se layer

\
• !

. .
. . . �--��--- sandcore of bank
. . . . '
. . .
. . . ·.
.. ..

: :i
..
.
.
. •

0 • •

Fig. 2. Open revetment on permeable intermediate layer with impermeable under-layer.

0
�
:::,-polygonal columns
'b
· ---- - _:_._granular intermediate layer
of gravel or b.r.oken stone

0
'&
·>-granular underlayer e.g.

\<6 colliery shale or silex

\
\

' -

--- with coarse material use a

• •
•
.. I
sand-tight cloth or membrane
·i

. .
.
· --
. ---- sandcore of bank
• • e •
•
.. . . .. . .. .
..
. .

Fig . 3. Open revetment on permeable intermediate layer with permeable under-layer.

 : -- \
' �·�-polygonal columns
\�

0
tJ'
�-granular underlayer e.g.
�0 colliery shale or silex
----- -
1

with coarse material use a

.

sand-tight cloth or membrane

. . � .

. . .
.
. . . .
. :;�----
sandcore of bank

columns

of bituminised

�------ sandcore of bank

. . .
.
. . . ·
. .

-- .

Fig. 4. Open revetment without intermediate layer on permeable under-layer.

 concrete blocks

intermediate layer
or broken stone

-�- granular underlayer e.g.

0

� colliery shale or silex

--- ·
· __ ..__ · sand-tight

- --
- _
. .
.
. .

. . .
. .
. -�
. ---''--- sandcore of bank .
_
. '
_
_ ·'
_
.
_

-
·
-
·
-

-
-
·
·

_
..

.-�
' U'
: b-· - concrete blocks

of ' bitumenised sand

sandcore of bank.
. .

. . .
.. ��--·- . ____:_
_ -- e __•

Fig. 5. Continuous revelment With or without permeable intermediate layer on permeable

under-layer.
 - - - \a
'

I
_.>

\ ., i \'\p
f_ concret.e blocks
.
o
tJ'

--
-
--

·c5- granular layer of

I

gravel or broken stone

- --- sandcore of bank

. i
. . . . . . . • j
.

Fig. 6. Continuous revetment on permeable intermediate layer with impermeable under-layer.

\- concrete blocks

� I

�
�r-++ +- -1--l--1---l---�

-
-

·• ,.\..-.--....- I I

- - . -1-1··
0
------ -CP
-
�- un.derlayer of clay

-
.-r-.----
.-- f-f---l--l--1--1-- -f-+-1-- - f--- �- -

_ --��--+--1- --+-+-+- -1-+- -_._i! I

+- -+-+-+--+--+- --+--- 0
.--.-­ 0
,.1.------­
-- f-�- - 1--+- .. �--+--IH-+-+-i
-+-+-+-4-+--+- r- ..

-
: •-t--�l lj -I-+ -�_LI_
. -�1--,_! 1-- -
I
J II �-----1----
... - -
j __ -1-- - -1- -
.

:.-r-f---1-r- r-,

rl-t. Lt, 1 +�---- -�t:t:

- --:�L-:�� ���- _-:.·
t·- -1- .

H
.
-

-1-+-
· · ·
t-rtb>-J..- ·
· · .
·

· �- . ._
· - · ·

1--1--+--t-+� }-f � bLL

- - ---
· -
sandcore of bank

: .. . . .
.

-�
.
·.

- ·
'+-+-f-:::;.---�-
,>+-· . .. · ._ _ .
.
. . .

·'
. . . . -

�--:. -· .

..

Fig. 7. Continuous revetment without intermediate layer on impermeable under-layer.

 0
\(30- polygonal columns with
'b mastic-filled joints

-'-"-granular intermediate layer

.
penetrated with mastic
.

\0
�\ . clay underlayer

• I

::--:--.,--- sandcore of bank

. . . . .
. .
.
.. .. .. . . .
.. �

Fig. 8. Closed revelment on impermeable intermediate layer with impermeable under-layer.

11 �

I -slab-shaped elements
\ \
with soil filled holes
grass I
,..-r;
'
and grass
-----� \
I \\ '•
,..... li
\ � I I
.. \\ .-
'\ ..--- I
\
\I
0,1 __.....- .;...' underlayer
�\ i
i J
- I
.,..-..-'
\
.).-..- --

l
_ __.....-....- I
I

I
I
'

j_ I I I L;-'-��
11. -� �
--,- • , I

11:
I • I · ·
I L.-J-;-
- -I- I --f--
• • '
f
i .
I • • • • • • I
1- - .
· ___
· ._. · . · . . . . .!
II '--- · · · · . .
I
- � - . .. . .. . . ... sandcore of bank
+ :
j:
·-
1-1- "=- •

I
•
. •
. . • • .
I
c-.,___· . • •

. ..
• •

;--�- .
• •
. • . .

Note: to apply only

. .'--�� . .. .
i
well above high water
. .

level

Fig. 9. Grassed revelment on impermeable under-layer.

3.2.4 Prefabricted
ma ts of concrete
blocks on
geotextile
carriers
A new deve lopment in the protect ion of river and lake
banks comp rises the application of factory-made
int e rlocking concr e t e blocks on a carrier of
g e o textile f ab ric and s omet imes pr ovided wi th cab l e s
through the blocks .

Ap plication s o far is mos tly on the banks of canal s ,

rive r s and lakes . The s e ma ts are permeable and ,
the re f o re , have to be counted as open reve tment .

3.3 Sub-division

3 . 3 .1 Mechanical
c ons t ruction :
yes or no
There is increas ing preference f or the us e of systems
which permit mechanical cons t ruction methods . One
r e sult of this is the development of the prefabricated
block mats des cribed in 3 . 2 . 4 above .

O riginally only the plate shap ed elements could b e

p laced mechani cally . Now als o column shaped elements
can be p laced mechanically , so that it can be said
that in Holland mo s t of the currently us ed reve tment s
can b e placed mechanicall y .

3.3.2 Reinf orced or

mas s concrete
All normal type s o f revetment are manufac tured i n mas s
c oncrete. Concrete elements f or s pecial revetments
cons t ruction are the only type s to be made in
reinf or ced concret e in the Netherland s .

3.3.3 Concrete p laced

in-situ or on
site manufactured
blocks
Prefab ricated conc rete blo cks should have preference
over in-situ p laced concrete becaus e the f o rmer
e nsures in gene ral a b e t t e r quality concre te . Even
made-to-measure g ap-fill blocks should pref e rably be
pre fabricated . In general the us e of in-situ concrete
even f or f ill ing joints and narrow gaps should be
avo ided as much as p o s s ible .

10
3.3.4 Cons t ruction
me tho d : only
a bove wa ter or
bo th above and
below water
Only the prefabr icat ed block mat s can be placed under
wat e r ; all o ther b lock or column revetments are
limi ted to above wat e r application ; however , thi s
means that no lower edge fixing cons t ruc t i on can b e
incorporated .

Ano ther new d eve lo pment cons i s t s of colloidal concr e t e

fo r pouring under water .

4 CONCRETE
TECHNOLOGY

4.1 General
During i t s life in use as bank revetment , conc rete
qua l i ty can deteri orate . The causes for this can b e
mechanical , biologi cal , phy s i cal o r chemi cal .

Mechanical a t tack on concr e te can be due to exce s s ive

loading , o r i n the case of revetment mainly through
the s couring action of sand and wate r . Biological
effects ari s e in the form of growth of algae , (wa t e r )
plants and o ther organisms . These growths may
adve r s ely affect the po s s ibility of walking over the
revetment , and the aes thetics , but do not ( in general )
damage the concre te skin . Physical causes of damage
are for examp le large t empe rature changes and fro s t .
Chemi cal at tack can occur through any contact with
water through the chemi cals in solution, or purifi e d
wate r .

Corros ion o f s t eel i f p resent i n the c oncrete can b e

de s t ru c t ive and should b e prevent ed , jus t a s any o t he r
form of attack should be guarded agains t .

In the cho i ce of the raw mat erials for the

cons t ruc t ion element s , important cons iderations are
the workabi l i ty of the concrete and the e conomi c s .

4.2 Characteri s tics

of we t concrete­
mi xes and
c o ncrete
The degree of compaction of a concrete-mix depends on
many fac tors , such as type and quant ity of cement ,
par ticle shape and di s t ribut ion of the aggregates and
especially the amount of water wi th p o s s ible add i t ives
in the mix .

Wa ter-s eparation or " b leed ing " of a concrete mix can

be count eracted by using less water , including
add i t ives in the mix and by increas ing the " sp e cific

11
 ��� �-��- ------�---�--�����-

surface" of the aggrega t e s ( i e to tal surface of all

particles ) .

S t rength o f a concrete element of a cons truction i s

mo s t effect ively tes ted b y a de s t ructive tes t . I t is
possible to use laboratory tes ts ins t ead . S tandard
labo ratory tes ts exi s t f o r the determinat ion of
erosion res i s tance , modulus of elasticity, shrinkage ,
creep and other characteri s t ics of concrete material s .
By choosing heavy aggregates the volume-mas s o f
concrete can be incr eased , which has a f avourable
inf luence on the s t ability agains t wave-attack ( s e e
Chapter l3 ) •

4.3 Requirements ,
s tandards and
s p ecifications
The manufacture and application of concrete is tied t o
a number o f s tandards ( s ee literature li s t : Dutch
s tandards ) . Unle s s o therw i s e specif ied , the concrete
as well as the products made o f it, have to comply
with the requirement s pres cribed in the s tandards .

Concrete used f or bank r evetments has to be at least

of quali ty def ined as B 3 0 i n the (Dutch ) concrete
s t andard s * , in order to l imit the damage potential of
mechanical , phys i cal or chemical a ttacks . When
s treng th during t rans po r t is impor tant , greater
s t rengths may be requi red .

For better resis tance against chemical attack , the

c ement has to have greater than the normal sulphate
r es i s tance and a low content of free lime . The type
o f cement which mee t s the s e requirement s is
blas t-furnace cement , whi ch therefore is des i rable f o r
reve tment use .

The concrete aggregates u s ed to have to comply w i t h

t h e pertinent product s t anda rds .

If reinf orcement i s used in the concrete , the cover

required under the concr ete s tandard s for "agg res s ive
environment " ( sea bank revetment ! ) should be s t rictly
adhered to .

Care ful compaction and f inishing treatment is o f

impo rtance t o achieve a dense wa ter-tight surface.
The concrete should be pro tected for a period of at
least one week agains t drying out . Cont rol of the
composition of the concret e , mixing , f inishing and
s t reng th is required .

* Trans lato r ' s no t e : Concrete qual i ty B30 30 N/mm 2

after 28 days

12
Poor and good concrete side by side.

Severe erosion d ue to the scouring action of

granular material and water.
4.4 Fur ther
Explana tion
The fo rego ing requirements and standa rds have been
formulated in the light of experience with the use of
concrete in wat e r cons truction works . Exaggerated
requirements for the s trength of concrete materials
can result in unne cessarily high co s t s .

Building materials in an agg res sive environment a r e

unde r attack , some t imes s lowly , occas ionally quickly .
The rate of progress of such at tack depends on the
material ' s res i s tance . In that connect ion the
comp o s ition and p o r e-dis t ribution is of course
impo rtant . Demands are therefore made on the
concrete ' s raw ma terials , fabrication, s to rage and
q uali ty . Depending on the type of cement the concr e t e
can suffer mo re or l e s s from the chemical at tack o f
calcium and magnes ium sulphates present in sea wat e r .

A fortunate circum s tance is that sulphate at tack in

sea water is much less than that shown by comparative
t e s t s in a laboratory with the same sulphat e
concentrat ion . Th is i s due t o the presence o f
chlorides in s ea wat er . P ractice has shown tha t
a t tack on concrete in s ea wat e r is mos tly small ,
p rovided the concrete i s dense and of good qual i t y .
In Ho lland the s p ecifications fo r concrete in coas tal
areas nearly always ins is t on the use of blast-furnac e
c ement . When t h e blas t-furnace slag content i s at
least 6 5 % , thi s c ement is sulphate-res istant .

Frost forms ano ther type of attack. In CUR-VB report

6 4 "Fro s t-re s i s tant Concr e t e " (Ref 10 ) tes t resul t s
are given which s how that blast-furnace cement
p rovid e s better fros t resis tance than doe s Port land
cement .

F inally there is the p o s sibility of mechanical d amag e

to concr et e . This wi ll be mainly caused by abras ion
due to flow of wat e r carrying sand and / or grave l , and
burs t ing act ion when the salts in the water form
crys tals within the concrete .

Temp era ture diffe rences can cause tens ions in the
s urface layers , caus ing cracking .
The above d i s cus s i on shows cl early that concret e
cons t ruct i ons have a limi t ed life , but that the life
can be s tr ongly influenced by the concrete qual i ty .
S tandards provi de clear guidance on the use of
reinforcement .

Corros ion to s t eel reinfor cement due to p ene tration of

carboni c acid from the air and chloride from s ea-wa ter
can be reduced with dens e , good-quality concrete .

In add i tion the concrete cover has to be adequate , and

crack-forilla tion should be prevent ed as far as

13
 p o s s ible . It should , however , be not ed tha t s t eel
reinf o rcement in concrete for s e a-wall revetment is
rarely cons idered neces sary .

5 REQUIREMENTS
TO BE MET BY
UNDER-LAYER

5 .1 General
Each und e r layer or foundation together wi th a
p o s s i b le intermediate layer can be defined as the
trans i ti on construction be tween the usual sand co re of
the embankment to the outside reve tment cover . A
f ounda tion with an intermediate layer has to ful f i l l
t h e f o llowing func tions depending on the
circums tances : -

prevention of soil migration (washing out) f r om the

b ank core;

f o rming a s mo o th s lope face f o r ease o f placing

the revetment_ ( part icularly appli cable to the
intermediate layer ) ;

to f orm an extra safety margin in cas e o f

r eve tment damage . S o that any cons equent
e r o s i on hole does not immediately reach the
s and core of the bank ;

f o rming a wat ertight layer on the permeabl e

b ank-core ;

f o rming a good drainage layer immediate ly und e r

the reve tment ( this applies to the intermediate
layer ) ;

f o rming a temporary p r o t ec tive cover again s t

f low and wave attack during cons truction o f the
bank;

to function as a tempo rary low bank to retain

the hydraulic ( s and ) fill for the main
b ank-core , and to be retained afterwards t o
form a permanent part o f the oank* .

Und er layers can be divided into two main groups i e

permeable and watert ight .

* T rans lator ' s not e : typical Dutch cons truc tion of a

new embankment along tidal wat e rs.

14
5.2 Watertight
f o undat ion
layer
A watert ight layer is gene rally produced by using
clay . If , however , an inte rmedi ate layer of granular
mat e rial is pres ent , pos s ibly with a geo textile clo th
to p revent the granular mate rial b eing trodden into
the clay , then the unde rlayer in relation to the
reve tment is a permeable lay e r .

Concrete blocks laid directly o nto the clay in the

z one above the t idal levels need no t pre s ent any
problems , p rovided the c lay is of good quali ty and the
r evetment is a reas onably tightly fitting des ign .
Howeve r , blo cks dire ctly placed on clay in the daily
t i dal zone can present problems wi th cons truction as
well as leading to erosion .

When the blo cks f i t snugly t o the c lay s lop e , it would

b e diff icul t to create high wat er pres sures under the
blocks . Therefo re , the s tability o f such b locks under
wave a t t ack wil l be greater than for the same blocks
on a g ranular ( f ilte r ) layer . This does r equi re an
o p timum f i t of the blocks on the clay ; the following
points have to be cons idered :

- e r o s i on of the clay unde r the revetment ;

hollows in the clay under the b locks ;

p las t ic and vis cous character i s t ic s of clay ;

shrinkage and swelling behaviour ;

- c lay workabili t y , particularly with reference

to comp a c tion for cons truct i on .

The de t ailed requirements for c lay to be us ed are

dealt with in paragraph 5 . 4 .1 . Her e the guide line s
are limi ted to s ome inf ormation for the cons t ruction
us ing clay as derived f rom refe rence 20 . It should be
realised that ( cons tant l y ) changing work cond it ions
make it dif ficult in practice to a t tain the optimum
construction condition of the clay . In order t o
produce a good under (f oundat ion) layer , it i s
recommended that a n attempt s hould be made to keep t o
t h e working limi ts set o u t be low , if at all p o s s ible .

The mo s t important aspects f o r the placing of c lay

are : -

- bring ing on s i t e ;

- compacting ;

15
- producing a smo o th slope and placing of blocks .

Bringing clay on s i te

The optimum workability cond itions , exp ressed in the

moi s ture content , lie generally between comparatively
narrow limits.. With s ome types o f clay these limi t s
can , the refore , be exceeded swif tly when the mo i s ture
content change s as a r esult o f weather changes . In
this cont ext i t is important that the plas ticity
index* Ip of the c lay is no t too low in order to
eliminate the poss ibility o f a swi f t change from the
s emi-solid to the s emi-liquid s tate during a period o f
rain ( Ip >- 20% ) . A good criteri on for the workab i l i t y
of clay is the cons i s t ency index* I c ( I c >- 0 . 8 ) . This
requir ement p rovides the neces sary d i f f erence be tween
plastic and liquid limi t .

Compaction o f clay

During cons t ruction , e f f orts mus t be made to o b tain

the dense s t p o s s ib l e soil s t ructure ( c ompac tions ) . In
order to o btain o p timum d ens i ty on s i t e , the i deal
limi tations for moi s ture content are : -

- at least equal or only a little be low the

o p timum moi s ture content according to the
Proctor t es t . ( Ri jkswate r s taat s tandards
1 9 78 ) ;

- at maximum equal t o or only a little higher

than the pla s tic limi t .

The dens i ty at tained should b e at least equal t o about

95% Pro c to r dens i t y . Compaction has to p roduce a c lay
layer as homogenous as p o s s ible . Layer thickness f o r

* Cons ist ency limi ts are expressed i n the mo is ture

cont ent ( i e the mas s o f water divided by the mas s
of dry ma tter x 100% ) , and split into the
following : -
- liquid limi t w 1 :
the moi s ture content at which a gro ove made in a
soil samp le is jus t f illed again after the dish
cont aining the samp le has been dro pped 25 t imes
over a height of 10 mm onto a· s o li d surfac e ;
- plas tic limit W :
P
the mo is ture content at which it is just no
longer p o s s ible to roll out a bal l o f c lay to a
3 mm thick thread wi thout crumb ling ;
- shrinkage limi t W s :
the mo is ture cont ent at which the s ample when
drying out no longer reduces in volume .

( f ootno te continued on page 1 7 )

16
compaction should not be too great , if necessary i t
can be d one i n 2 layers o f maximum 0 . 40 m thickne s s .
During and af ter compact ion it is ne cessary to carry
out t e s t s on d ens i ty and cons i s t ency . There should b e
n o large lump s o f clay pres ent which would no t mee t
the homogeneous fill requi rement .

Smoo thing the s lo p e and placing o f blocks

Care should be taken dur ing surface smoo thing o f the

s lo p e that the top 20 mm or so are no t loo sened too
much , as that can l ead , under the heavy loads to b e
expected a f t e r completion, to eros ion or damage . It
i s equally unaccep table to f ill deep vehicle tracks
etc with loo s e , crumb ly clay . Vehicular or even
pedestrian traffic on the f ini shed clay s lope f a c e
s hould b e avoided .

Furthermore it is imp o rtant to prevent local

contamination wi th p orous material s , becaus e
c ontaminations could p roduce lo cal spots where high
pore pres sures would o ccur so that blo cks could be
l i f t ed or e r o s i on take place .

It is recommended that the clay layer should be placed

s uch that af ter compaction the whole surface is a
couple of c entimetres p roud of the des ign p r o f i le .
The surp lus clay can then be trimmed off to p roduce a
f lat , smo o th and dens e surface , which should no t show
any cracks .

liquid condition
liquid
------ limi t
p las tic condi tion
------ plas tic cons i s t ency
limit limi ts
solid condition
shrinkage
------
limit

The derived indexes are :

plas ticity index : Ip W 1 - W
p
Consis tency index l e w 1- lv

Ip

in which W = wat er ( mo i s ture conten t ) o f the s o i l

being worked .

17
 In order to improve the contac t be tween blocks and the
clay surface , it is re commended to p ress the blo cks
down wi th a rolle r .

Work can continue when it rains until the c lay i s

weakened to the point where placing and compaction
requi r ements can no l onger be met .

As the clay surface s hould not be allowed to dry out ,

the concre t e blocks should in general be placed on the
same day that the s lo pe is trimmed to f inal profile .

No blocks should be p laced during f r o s ty weathe r , nor

when the clay is s t ill frozen.

Where a s and-core embankment has been cons truc ted ,

with a clay layer f o r reve tment f ound a tion , the clay
layer should , as with all o ther waterproof covers ( eg
as phal t-type revetment ) , not be too thin s o that
exce s s pore p res sures in the s and-core cannot l i f t the
laye r s . In this cont ext the landward slope o f the
embankment should not be f orgotten .

Ano ther reas on t o mai nt ain a suf f i ciently thick clay

layer is the func t i on des cribed in paragraph 5 . 1 , ie
to f orm a saf ety z o ne when the revetment is damage d .
In general ( i n the Ne therland s ) the clay thickne s s f o r
s ea walls is taken a t 0 . 8 t o 1 . 0 m .

U s e i s o ccas ionally made o f a p aving of gravel o r s and

on the clay in the tidal z one in orde r t o protect the
clay and make block p l ac ing eas i e r . The method d o e s
reduce the advantage o f the mor e s t able block pos i t i on
on clay ins t ead of on g ranular f i l t e r . This method i s
not recommended .

When high level saltings in f r ont of the embankmen t

make i t necessary to extend the clay underlaye r deep
down , a be tter me thod would cons i s t o f a t emporary
small bank to keep the lower slope of the embankment
dry . When , however , the mud and ground levels in
f ront of the embankment are low , the unde rlayer in the
tidal zone will have to be made in ero sion resis tant
mat erial , eg colliery shale . In tho s e s i tuat ions the
clay underlayer can only be provided above the daily
t ide zone .

5 .3 Permeab le unde r
laye rs
One of the func t i ons which a penneable underlayer has
is to provide p rotect i on of the embankment core
agains t wash-out and i t , there f or e , has to satisfy
the normal f i lter d e s ign criteria agains t mig rat ion o f
sand , ( s ee para 5 . 5 ) .

18
 Permeable underlayers can be divided into : -

unde rlaye rs o f granular ma terials , possib ly combined

with a geo t extile clo t h , or wi t h a laye r of clay
unde rneath;

unde rlayers o f bonded g ranular materials .

5.3.1 Und er laye rs o f

g ranular
mat e rials
In ord e r to satisfy the sand-tightnes s requirements
'"
the g ranular f i l te r has to be cons truc ted correctly .
This filter can comp r i s e one layer with a nearly
homogeneous particle d i s tribution , or comprise more
layers wi th the upper layer s having increas ing
particle s i z es . The bot tom layer is de signed to s t o p
particle migra tion from the foundation layer , and each
succe eding layer has t o do the same for the particles
in the layer below . F o r a graded filter the
cons t ruction will have to be a respons ible comp romi s e
between techni cal requirement s and economic
p o s s ibilite s . It is in practice o f t en easier and
cheaper to us e a g eo t extile clo th to achieve a
s and-tight filte r .

The revetment i ts elf has to satisfy the f i l t e r

p rinciple concerning mat e rial-t ightne s s . The
d imens i ons of the particles on the upper side o f the
unde rlayer filter have to be large enough to prevent
that mat erial being eroded through the o penings ( j o int
and holes ) in the revetment . However , the appli cation
o f too coarse particles in the upper layers o f the
f i lters is als o wrong , because it then become s mor e
dif ficult to get a smo o th b lock-slope and the block
placers wil l try to use large pieces of material t o
get the s l o p e looking right . This could l ead to
uneven s e t t lements and lack o f a smooth surfac e .

O ther d emands to be s a t i s f i ed by filters und er a

revetment concern the permeability . Excess pore wat e r
pres sures are i n thems e lves accep table a s long as they
are co mp ens ated by extra weight , so that nei ther the
f ilter nor the revetment can be lifted , nor that tho s e
p re s s ures can lead to sub-s o i l weakening resulting in
reduced shear-s trength and p o s s ible s o i l-s lip s .

As s tated bef ore , whe re a revetment is cons t ructed o f

separate unconne cted elements , s tab ility i s favourably
influenced when the b lo cks are placed di rectly on a
less p ervious ma terial ( s ee Chap ter 1 3 ) .

Vari ous materials can be used f or filter cons t ructi on ,

eg various typ e s of slag , crushed grave l , broken
s t one , silex, co lli e ry shale , and b rick-rubble . If
s lag is used , care should b e taken t o ensure that i t

19 '
 does not contain wat er-s o luble pollutants , which could
be environmentally harmful .

The o ther function ( s e e 5 . 1 ) of an und erlayer to a c t

as an in-buil t extra safety mar3in agains t damage done
to the revetment can be realised by :

placing a clay layer unde r the granular laye r ;

make the underlayer suffi ciently thick ;

- use material wi th a high volumetric mas s ;

- make the s t one d imensions in the und erlayer

sufficiently large .

When the base layer f o r any part of a revetment

consi s t s of co lli ery shale f r om a t emp orary bank , i t
i s des irable t o cover the shale with a n inte rmediate
layer of f iner granular mat erial , eg crushed s tone or
crushed gravel to a thicknes s o f 0 . 05 to 0 . 10 m , for
two reas ons : -

when blocks a re laid direc tly on s hale , the f ine r

particles will was h out s o that hollows and / o r
s e t tlement can occur ;

the unequal s i z e s of s hale e lements make i t

d i f f icul t t o get a smoo th s lo p e .

Placing a block r evetment di rectly on a geo text ile

cloth which in turn lies directly on the sand core o f
the bank canno t be re commend e d . The geo textile f o rms
no sui t able second line of defence in cas e o f damage
to the revetment . Al s o the geotextile is easily
damaged during the placing of blocks .

It is a p o s s ib i l i ty to combine a geo textile f i l t e r

wit h a g ranular layer i n one cons t ruc tion . This has
the advantage that no d i f f i cult fil ter requirements
need to be met by the granular mat erial .

The funct ional r equirement f o r s tability agains t

sl iding , ment ioned in Chap er 2 , needs to be observed
by taking into account the particle shape of the
granule s . In order to get suf f icient s tability
( e specially during cons t ruction) the particles need t o
be angular , depending also o n the degree of slope . In
general the angular shape will be satis fied , when
br oken materials are emp loyed , hence when gravel is
used i t should be c rushed g rave l .

5.3.2 Und er laye rs o f

bonded granular
mat erials
For a bonded filter und e r the reve tment both cement
and bitumen can be used as the bonding agent . With a

20
 correct selection of the mixture both the cement and
b itumen can be used to prepare an unde rlayer with a
permeability which appr oaches that of cohe s i onle s s
sand .

C ement-bonded underlayers have the disadvantage tha t

they cannot follow uneven sett lement s and eros ion
holes wi thout c racking . B itumen-bonded underlay e r s
are le s s sens itive to diff erential settlements due t o
the vis cous charac teris tics o f bi tumen . This assume s ,
however , that settlements develop gradually . The
percentage of bitumen used will mat erially influence
the pla s t i c i ty of the bonded layer .

When a bonded underlayer is us ed , the reve tment can b e

p laced direc tly o n i t .

This type of underlayer makes f o r a less s table block

reve tment than that provided by a good clay bas e .

5 .4 Chara c t e r i s t i c s
o f ma terials

5 .4 .1 Clay For the use of clay as a layer directly under a

concr ete block revetment , the erosion phenomenon is
important in the context o f block s tability under wave
at tack .

The f o llowing parameters influence the e r o s i on

b ehaviour of clay : -

part icle dimens i ons , ie clay , s i l t and sand

cont ent ;

the c lay-mineral ;

the o rganic matter c ontent ;

cons i s tency limits and the de rived indi ces ;

manner of sediment ation and c ons olidat i o n ;

the dens i t y , the ( o p timum ) water cont ent and the
degree of compaction;

permea bil ity ;

s hrinkage and swelling behavi our ;

cohesion and shear resis tanc e ;

physi cal-chemical cha racteris tics of clay ,

p o re-wa ter and eroding water ;

homog enei ty;

' 21
Al though it is p o s s ible to give indications to the
degree o f e r o s i on s ens itivity as a function of a
number of thes e parame ters sep arately , there is no
p o s s ibility of exp r e s s ing them in an eros i on f o rmula .
The de scrip tion of the influence of the vari ous
parame t ers can in general only be qualitative .

In order to d e te rmine resis tance against erosion

experimentally , var ious types o f erosion tes ts are
p o s s ible . A d i s t inc tion can be made be tween tho s e
tests which determine eros ion-resis tance along
s tandard i s ed procedure s , t aking no direct account o f
the circums tanc e s in pra c tice , and tho s e where the
relationship with the practi cal s i tuat i on does exi s t .
For the cho ice of a sui t able tes t method it is
recommended that an experienced soil mechanics
labo ratory should be consul t ed . Al t hough the erosion
resis tance o f a s pe c i f i c c lay cannot be easily
calcula t e d , cetain general limi tat ions can be
presented wi thin which the s tab ility against erosion
i s mo re certain ( s ee also Ref 2 0 ) : -

minimum about 20% c lay ( d < 0 . 00 2 mm) ;

maximum about 40 t o 5 0 % clay ;
maximum about 25% sand ( d ): 0 . 06 3 mm ) ;
maximum about 3% organi c mat ter .

When c lay is taken f rom salting s the d egree o f

" ripene s s " has to b e taken into account . When a
subme rged soil emerges above water surface , it begins
t o lo s e wat e r through evaporation; direct at f ir s t ,
af te rwards through s hrinkage cracks and vegetation .
This drying - out process is termed "ripening " .
Through reduction in p o r e water p re ssures the
effective s tres s es incr eas e , thus making the clay mor e
easy to work . I f any salting s clay i s t o b e us e d , i t
should be suf f iciently ripe , and this proce s s can b e
spe eded u p b y placing i t o n a s tock-pile and turning
the pile s everal t ime s .

Ripening-factor can be calculat ed f rom : -

n = W - p ( lOO L - H)
L + b H

in which
b = ratio of wa ter binding p ower of a speci f ic mas s o f
organic matter to that o f the same mas s of clay
f raction (b = a p p r 3 . 0 )
p grams mo is ture bound by 1 gr non-co llo idal ma t t e r
(dry clay minus clay frac t ion and organi c mat t e r )
( p = approx 0 . 3 )
L grams clay fra c tion per 100 gr dry mat t e r
H grams organic mat t e r per 100 gr dry mat t e r
W grams of wat e r per 100 gr dry mat ter

22
------- ----�-�--·��� � -��-��-�---

Apart from the water content , the percentage clay

fraction and organic mat ter influence the rat e at
which the clay "ri pens " wi th time . The conce p t o f the
" ripening-fac t o r " ( n-numb e r ) is use d . It is d e f ined
as the water content in grammes which is bound by
1 gram o f the c lay f ra c t i o n . A comple tely ripened
c lay has a " ri p ening-fac t o r " n less than 0 . 5 .

5.4.2 Colliery s hale

Colli ery shale is a was t e product from coal mining
( see also Re£ 1 9 ) . During the format ion of coal und e r
high pressure , sand and clay formed sand s tone and clay
shale . Colliery shale comprises mo s t ly clay shale
( thi s obviously applies t o Ho lland ) . Depending on the
d egree of conso l idation the clay shale can be d ivided
into clay-s tone and slate s t one . Mo s t of the clay
shale comprises the s o f t e r c lay-stone , which when
exposed to the air gene rally dis integrates eas il y to
smaller f ragments . This process can s e riously reduce
the permeability with laps e of time . The rate and
degree of such reduction d epends on the degree o f
consolidat ion . The material does not reduce the
part icles smaller than the 2 mm sieve d imension . The
reason for thi s i s that the high pres sure which
changed clay to clay- s t one r emoved the thin
water-coat ing from the clay par t icles , and wi th that
also removed the clay charact eris tics , such as
plas ticity , shrinkage and swelling potential . Damp
colliery shale has no r e s i s tance against a l t e rnat e
f r o s t and thaw cycle s .

During the det ermina t i on of the particle d i s tribution

account has to be taken o f a certain amount o f
d i s integrati on o f the coll iery shale as a r e sult o f
t rans por t , stock-p iling and placing .

Cons olidation p o s s ibilites of colliery shale are

heavily dependent on the mo i s ture content and the
g rain s i z e . When the moi s ture content of uns o r t e d
collie ry shale from s tock-piles increases b y a f ew
percent through precipitation, there i s a real
p o s s ibility that the opt imum moi s ture cont ent wil l be
exceeded , whi ch may l ead t o a s tate at which it canno t
be cons o lidated nor used for traf f ic . Wa ter logged
colliery shale is in p ri nciple more s ens itive to
s e tt lement flows than sand . In the USA some colliery
shale dams have collapsed by that proce s s .

When during the o perations with colli ery shale the

ma te rial is no t too badly remoulded , the permeabi lity
will be comparable to the values f o r a very coarse
sand (wi thout sil t ) , even af ter fragmentation of the
shale . Through compaction and allowing t raffic during
wet weathe r , the resul tant remo ulding can cause

23
 s erious de terioration in the permeab ili t y . If the
compaction is carried out with a bulldo z e r , whi ch d o e s
n o t caus e such remoulding damage then permeability i s
no t s e riously a f f e c ted . Compaction is e s s ential in
order to prevent d i f f e rential settlement .

In the bank building indus try co lli ery shale i s

commonly (Holland ) delivered in two grada tions , ie
0-70 mm and 10-125 mm . The volume tric mas s o f the
particles is about 2 , 200 t o 2 , 5 00 kg /m 3 • The
volumetric mas s o f the mat erial dumped loose is 1 , 7 0 0
t o 1 , 800 kg/m 3 .

5 . 4 .3 Silex
Silex , als o known (Ho lland ) as " f i res tone " , is a very
hard rock, cons i s t ing almo s t entirely o f a mi cro
crys talline form of Si0 2 The vo lume tric mas s is ab out
2 , 600 kg/m 3 • The vo lumetric mas s o f the loo se-dumpe d
material depend s o f course on the particle grading ,
and i s about 1 , 600 kg/m 3 ; this can be increased t o
about 1 , 8 0 0 kg/m 3 b y mechanical compaction .

S i lex o ccurs in mo re or l e s s regular layers ( s t rata )

in the lime s tone depos i t s (marl ) in Zuid Limburg
( Ho lland ) . The b y-product of cement manufac ture using
lime s tone is partly silex. Delivery o f silex is in
general in three s i z e rang e s , ie 0-25 mm, 0-90 mm and
25-70 mm .

B e cause of the produc t i on and process method used , the

s i lex always cont a ins s ome " t auw" , which is pure
lime-s t one recogni s able by the colour . It comes f rom
the uppermo s t marl s t ra t a , which are so hard that i t
i s not c rushed in the crushe r , but s ep arated out with
the silex .

5 . 4 .4 Slag
As an und e r layer t o and f il l e r be tween revetment
blocks various types o f s lag are used : -

(a) Litz-Donawi t z ( or LD ) , a s lag produced a s a by­

p roduc t in the LD s t ee l p roduc tion process . The
particles mus t have a volume t ric mas s o f a t l ea s t
3 , 100 kg /m 3 •

LD s lag can be contamina t ed by par ticles of lime ,

and encap sulated s teel and iron . A dis advantage
is that the hydraulic action of the lime can
cause petrification .

(b) Pho s phor-slag

This s lag is a calc ium s i l i cate whi ch is de rived

from pho s pho r ore by the add i t ion o f gravel
( among s t o ther i t ems ) . The volume tric mas s o f
this s lag i s 2 , 800 kg /m 3 • I t is angula r in sha p e
and looks like na tural rock .

24
 Slag f rom lead ore which was of ten us ed in the
past is no longer applied because of the danger
of lead leaching out which makes it no longer
accep table in the envir onment .

5.4.5 Geo t extile cloth

o r memb rane
The s trength of a woven mate rial is in general
expres sed as the f o rce exerted at f ailure per uni t
length in the direction at right-angles to the
di rection of the f o rce . The measured s trength als o
depends on the shape and dimensions of the tes t s t rip ,
the method of c lamping and the loading . The reduction
in the long dura tion s t reng th in comparison to the
sho rt durati on load can in some cases be 5 0% or more .
In civi l engine e ring cons truc tion the geotextile is
generally not sub j e c ted t o an imposed s t ress but mor e
to imp os ed def ormation . Geo t extiles are wel l able t o
cope with such deformati on due t o the large
permi s s ible ext ens ions , provided that the deformat ion
does not occur over a very short dis tance .

Deterio ration of the mechanical characteris tics can b e

caused through chemical or photo-chemi cal attack on
the material of the f ibres or through mechani cal
damage to the cons truction (Ref 1 7 ) .

Geo textile durability is in the first ins tanc e

dependent on the mo lecular cons truct ion of the
artif icial fibres . Re sis tance of the f ibre material
against at tack can be impr oved by the addit ion of
protec tive subs tances to the basic mat ter . Carbon can
b e added to reduce the adver s e ef fects o f Ultra Violet
(UV) radiation and also vari ous anti-oxydants .
Res earch has however shown that anti-oxydants in the
long run leach out to a subs tantial degree . Iron ions
will sho r t en the life of polypropylene . Aci d s can
have negative ef f e cts on the action of anti-oxydants .

Woven polyamid s (nylon) are not sub j ect to the ageing

proce s s to any no tab l e degree .

5 .4 . 6 Sandasphalt ,
bitumeni sed
sand
Sandas phal t comp rises s and , filler and bitumen , whi l s t
bi tumenis ed sand contains only sand and bi tumen . The
bitumen cont ent is 3% to 5% (mass/mas s ) , which makes
it open-s tructured as the bi tumen only s e rves to bind
the sand par t i cles toge the r .

The small bi tumen quant ity i s just suf ficient to cove r

the sand part icles wi th a thin bi tume n film of a few
microns thickne s s . Moreove r , the bi tumen concentrates
on the areas where the sand particles touc h . This
means that bitumeni sed sand , depending on the degree

25
 o f compac tion , the particle dis tribution and par t ic l e
shap e , has a large permeability which approaches ( fo r
the practically pos s ib le compaction) the permeabil i t y
of cohesionless sand .

Durability is d e t e rmined by the durable binding

qualities of bi tume n .

F or a more extens ive t reatment of this s ub j e c t

refe rence should be made to Ref 33 : "Guide t o the u s e
o f a sphalt in hydraulic cons t ructio n " .

5.5 Fi l te r
characteris tics

5.5.1 General
For mor e informa ti o n ref erence should be mad e to
liter ature Ref No 1 5 , 1 6 , 1 7 and 1 8 . The mos t
imp o r t ant requir emen t t o b e ful f i lled b y a f il t e r i n
slope p r o t e c ti on works con s i s t s o f i ts ab i l i ty t o
p r o t e c t the s o i l underneath agains t ero s i o n by 'ivave s
o r current s . The f i l te r should p r event migration o f
sand par t i c le s . I n cons idering the sand-tightnes s o f
f i lter construc ti ons two cond iti ons mus t b e
d i s t inguished : -

sand-tightness i rrespective of flow conditions , n o

mat ter how s trong ;

s and-tightness unde r the cond ition that specified

limit s in the flow cond i tions are no t exceed e d .

With the s and-tightnes s independent of the f low

cond i tions , the tightnes s depends on the fact tha t
particles of the f oundation mat e rial cann o t penetra t e
into the f i l t e r mat e rial due to the part ic l e s i z e s o f
t h e f oundation s oils being g reat er than the
por e-dimen s ions in the f i l t er .

With s and-tightne s s dep endent on the flow cond i ti on s

i t is impo r t ant t o know whi ch dire ction t h e flow has
in relation t o the f i l ter orientation .

If the f low is at right-angles to the interface

be tween f i lter and base material , the filter will
always be sand-tight if the ( f low) grad ient is smal l e r
than about 1* . The gradient force make s equi librium

* Trans lato r ' s no t e : Dutch usage is : a g rad ient o f

100 % . However English/American usage 'is as shown
here ( s ee Terzaghi and P eck " Soil Mechanics in
Enginee ring Pra c t ic e " , 2nd Ed 1 9 6 7 , page 48
( article 1 1 ) ) .

26
 with the weight of a column of sand ( s pecific weight
2650 kg /m 3 and a void ratio of 0 . 4 ) . The gradi ent o f
1 i s al s o known a s the " critical" o r "fluidisation"
g radient .

Wi thout cohes ive f orces b e tween the particles , o r

o ther add i tional pres sures due to surcharges , the
equilibrium will be d i s turbed wi th gradients in exc e s s
of 1 and movement of sand part icles is poss ible . Wi th
such s teep g radients it is import ant t o know if the
f low changes dire c t ion . I f the flow does no t change
direction, the s oil particles can " ar ch" at the
entrance to filte r pores , which improves the
sand-tightne s s . Under such ci rcums tanc es a " natural "
filter can be formed , so that for sand-t ightne s s it
would b e suf f icient to exclude only the largest
particles from migration through the filter . During
the f ormation of a natural f ilter all particle
trans port ceases becaus e the remaining coarse frac t i on
functions as a filte r f or the underlying layers .
Under a cyclic loading a natural f ilter could be
des troyed .

If the f low is parallel to the s eparation plane

between filter and bas e-ma t erial , the i t ems of maj or
importance f o r sand-tightne s s are the gradient and
through that the f low velocity wi thin the filter .
Wl1en a critical value of the gradient is exceeded the
f low velocity in the filter could become s o great that
the base-material begins to move and the
s and- tigh tne s s will be los t .

F or granular filters the i nternal s t ability o f the

graded mixture i s imp or t ant . F o r geot extile filters
at tention should be g iven to clogging by silt
particle s , s t r ength o f the cloth ( o r membrane ) ,
elas ticity and durabil ity .

5.5.2 Type s of filters

(a) Granular filters

His t orically , f i l te rs have b een used which

consis ted of granular ma terial s , which can be
coars e , f ine , rounded , flat or angular , more o r
less we ll graded , with a large o r small
volumetric mas s .

A filter of that type can comprise one layer with

a nearly homogeneous particle gradation , or
comprise seve ral layer s , wi th a gradually
increas ing part i cle size .

An advantage of the granular filter is its easy

adap tabili ty to the filter qual i f icati ons by

27
 virtue of the large degree of freedom in the
comp o s it i on of the g ranular mixtures . However ,
that advantage ( and f re edom) is limi ted by
e conomic cons iderati ons .

(b) Geo t extile f il t e r s

The mo s t common f o rms o f geo text iles are :

mesh-fab ri c ;

ribbon-fabri c ;

ma ts ;

clo ths ;

membranes .

Mesh-fabric i s woven us ing nearly cylindrical

threads (monof ilament ) . Charac teris t ic o f mesh
f abric is the r egular patt ern o f o penings and t h e
large percentage of openings p e r surface uni t .
The s i z e of the o penings i s mainly gove rned b y
t h e f i lament thicknes s and t h e numbe r o f
f ilaments per uni t leng th ( see no te below ) .

Ribbon fabrics are woven w i th a rt i f icial

f ibre-ribbons lying flat and t ightly together in
the f ab ri c . Characteristic of this fabric is the
very small percentage o f op ening s .

Mats are woven of split f ilm f ilament s , made o f

s t rengthened f i lm , fibrilated o r no t , and
p o s s ibly twis ted . The f i laments are through this
p rocess turned into a f ibrous s truc t ure . The
s i z e o f the openings depends mainly on the
thickness o f the f ilaments and thei r spacing .

Cloths are woven wi th multifilament thread s ,

twined or non-twined . The threads are packed
c lo sely togethe r . B e caus e the weave is thi n , i t
remains pliable , s trongly re s embling a textile .

Memb ranes comprise long or short f i b res , which

p o s s e s s co hes i on wi th or wi thou t a binding agent .
Characteristic of this material is that it looks
unt idy but ve ry dens e . Layer thickness can vary
f rom s everal mi l lime tres to f racti ons o f mm .

T ranslator ' s no t e : Ranki lor in "Hemb ranes i n Ground

Engine e ring " (Publis hed J \Vi ley) s peaks of the
" number o f picks per cm" .

28
 Geo t extile filters have the advantage of being
very thin, specifi cally when compared to g ranular
f ilters , but they are on the other hand ve ry
easily damaged .

(c) Comp o s i t e f i l t e r s

In this g roup a d i s tinction can b e made between

g ranular filters wit h a binding agent , and
g ranular filters wrapped in geotextiles .

Examp les of the first group are the open-tex ture d

mixtures of sand and s t ony ma terial s , bound wi t h
bi tumen , such a s sand asphalt , b i tumenis ed s and ,
etc . The bitumen provides the binding agent ,
g ives the granular f ilter a g reater degree o f
s tability and s t rength .

5 .5 .3 Sand-t igh tne s s

requi rements

Granular f i l t e r s

(a) Independent f rom the f low conditions f or nearl y

uni f o rm filter and bas e-mat erial s ( ve ry s teep
s i eve-curves ) , sand-tightne s s will be sati s f ie d
when ( s ee Fig 10 ) .

D s o f < 4 to 5 D so b (1)

whe r e D 5 0 i s the d iameter o f the s ieve aperture

through which 50% o f the sample pas s es .
Index f = f i l ter and index b
= base mat e rial .

For f ilter and bas e-materials with non-unif o rm

particles ( re la t ively flat s i eve-curve , see
F ig 1 1 ) , the criteri on is

D 15 < 4 to 5 D 8 5 (2)
f b
(b) Depending on the f low conditions , i t is s ome time s
po s s ible to relax the requi rements s e t out unde r
( a ) above . It is , in those ci rcums tance s ,
recommended that the advi ce o f a special i s t
res earch labo ratory is obtained .

It is mo reover d e s i rable to aim f o r the

s i eve-curves of filter and bas e ma terials t o be
as near as p o s s i b l e parallel (Figs 1 0 and 1 1 ) ,
because the vali dity of f o rmulas ( 1 ) and ( 2 )
depends on that . Compac tion o f filter mat erial
has to be carried out in layers whi c h are no t too
thick .

29
 Geo tex tile fil ters

(a) Ind epend ent o f the f lo� conditions sand-tigh tnes s

is achieved when :

in which o max is the largest aperture in the

geotextile f ilter . In practice Omax i s usually
given the dimens i on which is the e quivalent o f
the average diamet e r o f tho s e s and particles
belonging to the 2 % ( m/m ) which pas s e s through
the f i lt e r : 0 98•

(b) Dependent on the cond i t i ons of f l o w

When a ' na tural ' f ilter is f o rmed through t h e

ac tion o f cyclical loading , the f ol lowing
sand-tightness cond i t i on is vali d :

Under s t eady f low cond i t i on s , f o r mat s , meshe s ,

ribbon-f abric and cloths the f o rmul a i s :

For memb ranes the limi ts are more f avourab l e :

o 90 < 1 . s n 9 0b

For the d e s ign of f i l ters the f i r s t considerat i o n

mus t be to inves tigate t h e f low cond i t i ons . If
thes e a re s trongly cyclic wi th gradients in the
base mat erial s t eeper than 1 : 1 , the f i l t e r-rule s
o f case ( a ) above should b e used . F o r o ther
cond i t ions o f f low the rule s unde r ( b ) can be
emp loyed .

When f l ows are mainly parallel to the s eparat i o n

p lane between f i l t e r and bas e-mate rial , and the
flow-grad i ent is no t too larg e , even very o p en
f i lters could be suf f i c i ently sand-t igh t .

Reve tment const ruc tions for coas tal def ences a re o f ten
s ub j ected to s trong cyclic f lows and , therefore , nee d
to s a t i s fy the rul es ind icated in ( a ) above .
5.5.4 O ther
requirements
The permeability o f a f ilter als o has to s a t i s f y the
r equi rements related to the danger of up-lif t o f the
reve tment due to pore-wa t e r pre s s ures within the bank ,
if the p ermeability is inadequate to p revent
s a tis factory relief of such p re s s ures . On the o ther
hand , a low-p ermeability f i lter has the advantage o f

30
 QJ 100 --�
N I

Vl
....
QJ :
"'t:: - - -- - - - - - -
c
::I - -j
QJ 75
C'l
ro
---
-
c
QJ
u
....
QJ
Cl.. so

t
I 25 -----------4
i
- - - -' L - - - -

0
0,001 0.01 0,1 1 10 100

particle d iam eter (mm)

Fig. 1 0 . Filter require m ents for uniform material.

100
' (u '
N J

- -+ ­
Vl _
I
, _

i
.... I
QJ I
"'t::
c
::I
75
QJ base
C'l
ro
-
c

B
....
· so
QJ
Cl..

1 25

" ·
- - -j
i

I
:
0
I
0,001 0,01 0,1 10 100

particle diam e t er (mm)

Fig. 1 1 . Filter re quirements for n o n-uniform material.

 provid ing a more s table base for blocks unde r wave
attack.

For the internal s tabili ty o f g ranular f i l ters the

following general rule can be applied :

which as sumes that no internal mig ration will o c cur ,

irrespective of the s teepne s s of the gradient .

It s hould be no ted that f o r small gradients this

c r i t erion can be eased . However , no accurate values
are known at present f o r the critical grad ients
relat ing to internal s tabi li ty .

In order to prevent blockage of a granular f i l t e r , the

f o llowing rule applies :

5 .6 Qual i ty cont rol

If an embankment has to function efficiently for a
long p eriod of time , certain r equirements will have t o
b e satisf ied b y the cons truc t i on a s a whole , a s well
as in parts , and , theref ore , the cons t ruct i on
materials s hould al s o mee t certain specif i ca tions . In
the f or egoing discuss ion various pert inent
characteris tics of cons t ruct i on elements and mat erials
have b e en described and in s ome cases ac tual values
have been give n .

I n o rder t o ensure that the materials d elivered t o t h e

construction s i t e mee t the ( las t ing ) requirement s , i t
is necessary t o provide qual ity c ontr o l . This means
that the pro j e c t design includes which
mat erial-charact e r i s t ics are e s s ent ial and wha t
quality level will be required . The requirements have
to be formulated in a way whi ch makes control
p o s s ible . It is als o necessary to have tes t-me thods
available , or to deve lop them . It is then also
necessary to inve s tigate if the material as required
can be produced and p laced on s i t e , and what e f f e c t
the site cons truc tion work has o n the characteris t ics
of the ma teria l . Finally i t has to be decided which
quali ty checks have to be made at delivery and / o r
cons t ruction and what the consequences might be o f
that procedure .

Naturall y , the procedure des cribed above has

inevit ably to be based on fe edback to and ad jus tment
of the original s tart ing point s . A s i tuation , where
requi rements and tes t-p rocedures in s tandards ,
specif ications and guide lines are abs o rbe d , such a s
is the cas e f o r conc rete ( C hap ter 4 ) has no t ye t been
r eached for the various hydraulic cons t ruc tion

31
material s . Developments are in progre s s , with ( o f ten
inte rim) reports availab le . Much inf ormation
p r e s ented in the preceding parazraphs was derived f rom
such report s .

It i s d e s i rable that use s hould be made of the

exp e r i ence and knowledge which is available in the
specialist organi s ations on qual ity contro l .

The ul timate advantages o f a cons i s tent quality

cont ro l lie no t only in the quali tative improvement o f
cons t ruction and g reater unders tanding between
supplier and c lient , but als o in a mo re cons t ant
and / or improved quality of mat erials . This provides
e conomy in cons t ruc tio n and makes it poss i ble t o
provide b e t ter calculated designs .

In carrying out quality c ontrol the f o llowing s tag e s

exi s t : preliminary inve s t igation, inves tigat ion a t
d elivery and / or during cons t ruction and checking a t
f inal accep tance . T h e pre liminary inves tigation i s
d i re c t ed at t h e d e t ermination of t h e s ui tability o f a
part i cular mat erial or mixture (of material s ) for the
propo s ed application, also with regard t o the
availabi lity of the required quantities . All this is
based on the prop o s ed requi rement s (wh e ther or n o t
included in t h e specif ications ) . Inves tigat i ons a t
d elivery and / or c ons t ructi on include checking the
d e s i red qual i ty , wi th the main purpose of maint aining
a c ons tantly high-level quality . Checking at final
accep tance i s aimed a t the quality o f the f inal t o tal
r e sult as well as the quali ty of all the cons tituent
e l ement s . The checking at delivery and at f inal
accep tance will determine e sp ecially any rej ection ,
r e placement , guarant ees , et c .

Whic h phase o f the qua l i ty control process the main

checks are made in depend s on the mate rials us ed and
thei r application .

The r e s pons i b i l i ty f or the delivered quality ( o f

products o r mat erial s ) lies with the s upplier ,
p rod ucer or c ontract o r . The emp loyer checks on the
quality through specified controls , car ried out by or
f o r him, or through inf ormation on tes ts carried out
on behalf o f the supplier ( f actory cont rol ) .

F o r the mat e rials menti oned in 5 . 4 ( colli ery s hale ,

s i lex , g ravel and slag ) , the filter requirements are
exp re s s ed in particle s i z e d i s t ribution limitations
( s ee 5 . 5 ) , which have t o be checked by means o f
s i eving at source o r a t delivery . Where the par t i c l e
s i z e dis tribution can alter due t o mechanical o r o t h e r
a t t a c k , inve s t igati ons have t o b e carried out on
durabili ty and s trength ( f ros t-thaw te s t s , boi ling
t e s t , alkaline / lime cont ent , crushing te s t , et c ) . In

32
 s ome cas es the permeab ility / d ens ity is determined in
relation to f low-s t abi l i ty o r in conne ction with
s t reng th charact e r i s t ic s .

The determinat i on o f the percentage contents of s and ,

organi c ma t t er and clay fract ion in clay has to be
carried out in connec t i on wi th the expe cted
performance of the materia l , but also becaus e o f the
importance o f its uni f o rmi ty . Inves t igation of the
mo is ture cont ent is of maj o r importance f o r
wo rkabil i ty during cons truction . Erosion and
s hrinkage charac teris tics need t o be inves tigated at
the p r eliminary s tages .

Geo t extile filters are checked f o r permeability and

s and-tigh tnes s . S t reng th and flexibility ( e la s t i ci t y )
a r e of importance during cons t ruction and i n
connec t ion wi th s e t t lement s i n the s i t e location;
various checks exi s t to determine t he s e p arame t e r s .
The f ilter mat erial is impor tant f o r the l i f e
expec tanc y . F or polypropy lene there i s f o r exampl e a n
accelerated ageing t es t . A s the geotextiles are
p roduced in factori e s , cont r o l on quali ty should b e
carried out i n the factory .

B i tumeni s ed s and needs s pecial a t t ention on the

p e rcentage content and the type o f bitumen used , and
this s hould be d e t e rmined at the produc tion s t ag e .
S upervi s ion of trans p o r t and p lacing on s i t e
( t emperatur e , placing metho d ) i s impor tant t o ensure
that the required lay e r thicknes s and unif ormi ty are
obt ained .

6 LOADING ZONES
ON EMBANKMENTS
( SEA-WALLS )

6.1 S ea-walls
The degree of wave at t ack on a s ea-wall during a
s t orm-tide depends on the orientation in relation t o
the direction of the s t orm , the durat ion and s trength
of the wind and the extent o f the water surface
front ing the s ea-wall .

The presence of ground leve l s at o r above s ea level i n

f ront of the embankment , ie sal t ing s or sand banks ,
and the h eight and wid th the reo f , or deep channels and
the width of these channe l s , or the pres ence of
harbour-breakwaters , all have their inf luence . High
f o reland will reduce the lo cal wave-a t tack on the bank
to a greater or l e s s er deg r e e . If the s and-banks are
located s ome kilometres away f r om the embankment , with
appreciable dep ths in the space b e tween s e a-wall and
s andbank , the ini t ially reduc ed waves can grow higher
again . Wave ref raction and d i f f raction wi ll , in the
No rth Sea for example , change the character of the

33
wave s sub s t antially when they app roach the deep
channels and sand-shoals near the (Dutch) coas t . The
wave mo t ion fur the r into estuaries is , the refore , not
s olely de termined by the s ea-waves . Tidal currents
along the s ea-wall als o have an effect on the
wave-action .

Propaga tion of wave-sys tems can to some extent b e

calculated provided that the area concerned i s
topographically n o t t o o compl icated . Such
calculations s hould , where pos s ible , be supplemented
and contro lled by s i te observation (marks l ef t by
f loating debri s , us e o f aerial photography ) . Becaus e
the process of wave-dis tortion is so complicated it i s
mo s t ly not poss ible t o calculate more than an
approximation to the wave-height at the bank .

The re is a cert ain correla ti on b etween the water l ev e l

( t ide plus wind s et-up ) and the height of the waves ,
b e cause wind s et-up and waves are both caused by wind .
F o r s ea-walls in the tidal regi on , fronting deep
wat e r , the following approximate z ones can be
d i s tinguis hed ( s ee Fig 1 2 ) : -

I the z one permanently subme rged ;

II the z one between MLW and �ffiW; this is the z one

where wave-attack occurs daily . The
ever-present wave-loading is of importance ,
although the wave-height is mos tly le s s than in
Z one III ;

III the z one between �llllv and the design leve l ; this
zone can be heavily at tacked by waves , but the
frequency of such attack reduces as one goes
higher up the bank;

IV the z one above d e sign leve l , where there should

only be wave-run-up .

F or s e a-walls with a high level " fo reshore" Zone I

d i s appears . Depending on the leve l of the fores hore ,
unde r o r a little above �W , Zone II may exi s t
partially or no t a t all .

Embankments in the tidal area wi th a high f o reshore

have the bene f i t of the wave-damping effect of that
foreshore , making wave-at tack at lower levels less
heavy than on banks lying along deep water .

A bank slope r eve tment in p rinciple functions no

d i f f e rently unde r normal cir cums tances than unde r
ext reme cond itions . The accent is , however , mo re o n
t h e persis tent character of the wave-at t ack rather
than on its s ize ( s ee Fig 1 3 ) . The quality o f the
sea-ward side slope can , prior t o the occurrence o f

34
 d esign water level

m ea n hi h w a t er

- mean low water

n m

Fig. 12 D ivision of the slope i nto zones o n sea wal ls i n the tidal region
without a foreshore.

extreme l o ading
water level
/
/

l o a ding

t- -
Fig. 1 3 . D i fference i n intensity and location o f wave attack under normal and extreme
conditions.

desi n w a t er l e v e l

normal mean

II m

-- -- --�- -
F ig. 14 D ivision of the slope i nto zones for l a ke ban ks.
 ------- -------- - --- - -

the extr eme s ituat i on , already be damaged during

relatively no rmal cond itions to such a degree that i t s
s t reng th i s no longer sufficient .

The d ivision of the s lope into loading z ones has a

d irect conne c t ion wi th the s af e ty agains t f ailure o f
the revetmen t ; for this reference should be made t o
Chap ter 1 4 .

6.2 Embankments
along lakes
Where the wat e r level agains t a s ea-wal l i s changing
c ontinuously unde r the inf luence of tidal movement ,
very rarely wil l the wave-at tack pers i s t f or any long
period a t the same leveL In c ontras t along lake
banks there will (apart from excep tional
circums tance s ) be l i t tle variation in water leve l * ,
and wave-at tack wil l o ccur daily at approximately the
same l evel , ie the average water leve l .

Lake embankments without high foreland have the

f ollowing approxima t e z one distinct ions : - (Fig 14 )

I The z one which i s permanently submerge d . This

zone has to be protected agains t wave-a t tack and
currents , by means of a cons t ruct i on to be laid
and maintained below water leve l . Individual
p lacing o f blo cks is in this case no t p o s sible .
A dif f erent s ituation can occur in a clos ed-o f f
s ea-inlet where the average water l.e vel lies
above the original low-wa t er leve l , at a level
s ome way up the revetment s lope . Thi s has
imp or t ant adve r s e cons equence s for the
maintenance o f the s l ope b elow water leve l .

II The z one b etween the normal mean water level and

the des ign leve l . Thi s z one is attacked by
waves and currents , ice and o ther f l o ating
debris . In this zone waves break jus t below the
ambi ent water leve l .

III The z one above d e s ign leve l , whe re only

wave-run-up occurs . A g rass mat is o f t en
adequate t o mee t the requi rements in this zone .

6.3 River
embankment s
River embankme nts are gene rally cons t ru c t ed as green
banks . Only whe re the banks are expos ed t o s e rious
at tack , a hard reve tment may be applied : -

* Trans lat o r ' s no t e : This is not ne ces sarily valid f o r

wat er s torage lakes ( e g Rut land Water ) where
wave-at tack at draw-do wn is at very different leve l s !

35
 at loca tions where the channel cross-sect i on
narrows ;

at locations whe re the main current runs close t o

the toe o f the bank slop e , e g the outside o f
bend s ;

at locati ons exp o s ed t o s trong wind s ;

in the proximity of locations where there are

d i s cont inui ties in the cr os s-secti on , such as
bridge pier s , e t c ;

whe re the bank s lope is f lanking deep wat e r . *

The locations where reve tments have been cons truc t e d

were generally d e t e rmined on the bas i s of exp eri ence
of the controlling authorities , f ollowing on the
his tory of damage s in the pas t . Such revetment s are
usually protected only agains t currents ;
excep t ionally , in cas e s where there happens to be a
long wind- f etch , wave-at tack can also be expected . In
s ome locations addi tiona l a t t ack can be created by
waves and d rag-velocities due t o passing ships .

In cont ra s t to the s i tuation with s ea-walls , river

embankments o f ten ( *in Ho lland ) have t o hold high
water l evels during pro l onged f loods ( las ting f o r
weeks ) ( *large Dutch rivers ) . The banks can unde r
thos e cond i t i ons become s aturat ed . When f l o o d wat e r s
recede again quickly (within a period o f a week ) the
po re-water in the bank mus t b e able to drain out
freely . This means that reve tments should be o f an
" op en" s tructure in comparison with the p ermeability
of the layer under the reve tment .

7 EMBANKMENT
PROFILE
The shape of the bank s lope needs to be obs erved
longi tudinally as we ll as in cro s s -s ec tion .

7.1 C r o s s -s e ction
Impo r tant aspects in the choice of the cros s -s e c t ion
include , among s t o thers : -

the s l ope angle or g radient ;

s hape of the cross-se c t ion ;

* Trans lat o r ' s no t e : This applies to the large

rivers in Ho lland , ie Rhine , 1-las l , Maas , where
d e p ths for shipp ing are up to 5 m . Rhine from Hook
of ffo lland to Ro t t erdam is about 1 2 m deep .

36
Gradient of the bank

The g radient may not be so s t eep that the who le s l o p e

or the revetment can lose s tability ( through sliding ) ,
both during const ruction as well as in use on
comple t ion . The s e cri t eria give , there f ore , the
maximum s lope angle . A flat ter , more gent l e , s l o p e
leads t o a reduced wave-f orce o n the revetment and
less wave run-up ; wave energy is d i s s ipated over a
great e r length . Us ing the wave run-up offer s , for
example , the opportuni ty to calculate the crest height
o f a trapez oidal profile of a bank and thus d e t e rmine
the volume of the embankment given a fi rm crest wid t h .

Howeve r , this does not nece s s arily imp ly that minimum

ear th-volume coincides with minimum co s ts . An
expensive part o f the embankment comprises the
revetment o f the waterside slope and the slope surface
increases as the s lope angle decreas es . S imi lar
cons idera t ions can be compiled for banks wi th a
s ea-side berm.

The optimum cros s -s ection ( based on co s t s ) can b e

det ermined when the cos t s o f earth works p e r m 3 and
thos e of revetment per m 2 are known . Careful
attention is , however , needed be cause the revetment
costs are not independent of the s lope angle .

Another p o int to be taken into account in the choi c e

o f a s lo p e angle i s the space o ccup ied b y the
embankment ; this could be the decisive factor when
compared with exi s t ing (and / o r propo s e d ) us e , in the
context of economic optimis ation .

Shape of the cross-section

The s lope can be f lat , convex o r concave ; various

o p inions exi s t on the s e alternative s . Wi th a concave
prof ile the wave run-up is reduced at the lower wat e r
l evels compared t o run-up o n a convex s lo p e , but the
converse is t rue a t higher water leve ls . The
f lexibility of the blo ck revetment , in connec t ion wit h
pos sible s e t tlement and s o i l erosion , will b e
adve rs ely aff ected on a convex slope , due to the
arching action . A concave profile has in this r e s p e c t
a n advantage over a convex profile .

It is not easy to determine the value of the advantage

or disadvantag e of the flexibility as a func tion o f
the shape and deg ree o f curved s lope s . The c oncave
shape make s it more d i f f icul t for wave-ac tion to
remove individual blocks , b ecause of the " up s ide-down "
arching effect of the concave slo pe . A dis advantage
of a pronounced convex profile is , tha t with many
sys tems the block-j oints will become much too open.

37
 The water-side berm is an element in bank­
cons t ruction , o f which the func tion has changed in the
cour s e of time . Part i cularly in Zeeland* out e r berms
have been appl ied f r equently . It could in the past
lead to a reduction in the expendi ture on s tone
revetment s . On a very gently s lop ing berm a good
grass mat can be maintained , even at lower levels ,
better than on the s teeper angle o f an uni nterrup ted
s lo p e . Ho reove r , the outer berm produced an
appreciable reduc tion in wave run-up .

The condi tion f or a sat i s f actory r ealis a ti on of the

two main func tions , ie economi es on s tone revetment
and reduction of the wave run-up is that the berm
level has been adj u s t ed correctly to the p revalent
water levels whi ch can o ccur . It mus t be obvi ous tha t
the berm level should b e higher if the bank has a le s s
shel tered location; in d if f e rent cases there can b e
d i f fe rences o f some metres i n height . Fur ther , the
outer berm level , in order to obtain a s ub s tantial
r educ t i on in wave run-up , should be clos e t o the mean
water level of the desi gn s torm f lo o d . If the berm
l i e s too much below that level , the highe s t
s t orm-f lood wave s would not b reak o n the berm and the
run-up will be inadequat e ly af f e c ted .

P r e s ent p ractice is to p lace the outer berm at d e s ign

wat e r level as indicated in the Delta commi t t e e ' s
repo r t . For a s t o rm-flood berm at such des ign leve l
the re are in general no problems wi th the growth o f
g r a s s on the berm and t h e upper s lope . However , the r e
can b e circums tance s which require also the
application of a hard revetment on the berm and even
on a part of the upper slope ( s e e Fig 1 5 ) .

In o r de r to avo i d extra forces coming into action at

c o rners in the profile of the outer s lo p e , all such
c o rners should be r ounded as much as p o s s ib l e . An
impor tant funct ion of the s ea-s ide berm is i t s us e as
an access road f o r bank maintenance .

River ( f lo o d ) banks o f ten have a revetment s tarting

high up on the slo p e . I t then needs s o lid support
along the bottom line . Care should be taken to
prevent erosion of the gras s mat at that j unc tion with
the reve tment .

7 .2 L ong i tudinal
profile
Due to irregulari t ie s in the longi tud inal profile o f
a n embankment , i n connection wi th the topo graphy o f

* S outh-we s t Provinc e , compris ing mainly is land s

38
 the t errain in front of the bank , s ome reaches of the
s lo p es could be sub j ect to mo re than normal at tack
( f o r exampl e due to refraction of wave s ) .

Not all revetment sys tems are suitable for use on a

curved slope , due to s everal complicat ions : -

s ys t ems which d o no t permit deviations f r om a

s traight line ;

going around curves leaves gaping j o int s ;

d i f f icul ties in placing the blocks by machine .

Mechanical me thods f or p lacing of b locks is in

p ractice limi t e d mainly to s traight lines and to large
radius bend s with suf f i ciently large areas . Placing
of b lo cks by mechanical means is no t only economi cal ,
but it can als o clamp the blocks t ightly togethe r ,
much tighter than can be achieved manually . This
as s i s ts in producing a good s lope protection .

I t is however important to r emembe r that any damage t o

a block revetment should b e repairable manually .

8 TRANS ITIONS
AND BOUNDARIES
The experi ence o f many controlling autho rities is that
much damage takes p lace at trans i t ions from one type
of r evetment to ano ther and at the line whe re the
r evetment ends . I t is poss ible to give a great deal
o f care and a t t ention to the revetment cons t ruct ion ,
but when the weak e s t link breaks , the safety of the
d e f ence system is at ri s k . This chapter is , the r e f o r e
dedicated t o thes e s pecial aspect s .

8.1 Toe cons t ruction

o f revetment s
The toe cons truction has the func t ion of revetment
support and to protect it agains t eros ive action o n
t h e b o t t om e d g e o f the slop e .

A d i s tinction has to b e made between a s ea-wall and a

lake embankment . The dai ly occurring wave at tack on a
lake bank, in contras t to that on a s ea-wa l l , will b e
approxima tely a t a *cons tant leve l . The daily
wave-attack will have to be countered through tha t
part of the revetment where the underwa ter slope mee t s
the revetment on the s l ope above wate r .

On sea-walls the toe cons t ruction i s usuall y , f o r

construc tional reas ons , placed above low wat e r .

* T rans lator ' s note : except f or wat er s t orage

r e s e rvo i r s (eg Rutland Wat e r ) where water leve ls
can vary greatly, as s t ated previously

39
 II m

lig h t w ave a tta c k - - · · m e dium w a v e -attack · - heavy w a v e attack

Fig. 1 5 . Pos s i b le term ination of the hardened revetment at an oute r b erm s i tuated at design
level.
Wave-at tack of any signif icanc e will not of ten occur
at that level , because the winds caus ing waves t o
oc cur gene rally als o raise water leve ls , so tha t even
at the o f f icial low water time , the waves will o ccur
at a higher level . An excep t ion to this is the sea
swell which can indeed give heavy wave at tack at lowe r
l evels .

When embankments have high-level f oreshores , the t o e s

of the banks are protec ted agains t the heavi e r waves
by the breaking o f waves on the high shore leve l s .
Where a slope has to be revetted with rectangular
b locks , a need is c reated f or " s t raight lines " . Such
lines are provided by means of boards f ixed to a row
of timber pile s . The boards could be ei ther of woo d
or concre t e . This method o f cons truc t ion is cer tainly
not always to be t aken as adequate f o r heavily
a t t acked lake-bank toe cons truc ti ons . Even if there
is a berm-support in f r ont o f the toe , with a heavy
mat t re s s , there is s till a chance that the wave-mot i on
will g radually remove s and to the base level o f the
boards , so that the f oundation under the lowe s t
reve tment b lo cks can b e washed out and the t o e wil l
sub s id e .

An imp roved cons t ruc t i on in this case would comprise a

sheet pile wall of tongued and grooved boards ,
preferably s t rengthened along the top with a waling
( s e e Fig 1 6 ) . Thi s cons t ruc t i on provides the toe wi th
a more gradual trans ition f r om the s l ope to the l evel
o f the s tone-prot ec t ed berm, whi ch is an important
aspect conside ring the " to-and-fr o " wave mo tion . This
s ys t em also p rovides a bet ter means of connection wi th
the first row o f t oe-blocks .

Design of t oe-cons t ruct ion r equi res a t tenti on to b e

given t o the following point s : -

(a) I f blocks are p laced directly agains t a s o l i d

line of timbe r pos ts , the danger o f washing-out
of base material exis ts because of unavoidable
gap s between the p o s ts ; moreove r , this method
does not produce s t r aight line s . The s tar ting
point f o r rec tangular blocks has to be the
to e-board . Excepti onally, the s o lid line o f
p o s t s could be cons idered f o r us e wi th polygonal
blocks , but great care will have to be given to
the s and-tigh tne s s of the cons truction .

(b) If the toe cons t ruction proj ects too far above
the adjoining foreshore or support benn, there
wi ll be a chance o f slope undermining , wi th the
t oe cons truc tion " t oppling over " ; a pos s ibility

40
 I
sheet-pile wall I
I
I
with waling I

-- -- -- · -- - - -- - - -- --- - -- - -- -- -- --

Fig. 1 6 . Toe structure with timb e r sheet-pile wall a s a p ossible solution for lake dykes.
 which wil l usually mani f e s t itself during the
construction s tage .

(c) When the dumped s tone level on the support berm

i s pitched too hig h , the trans i tion between berm
and t oe will be discontinuous , l eading to awkward
extra force s acting on the toe cons truc t i on . The
s t ability o f the support berm is also negatively
affected .

(d) When the toe board is not suf ficient ly deep the
slope could be unde rmined and , wit h reduction of
f oreshore or berm level , the s tab ility may be
lo s t .

(e) W i th a weak sub- soil there is a danger that a

sheet pile wall or a row of piles may no t be
suf f iciently s table .

8.2 T o p-edge t o the

hard revetment
The trans ition from the hard revetment to the grass
mat o f t en f o rms a weak p oint in the cons t ruc t i on . A
g o o d gras s mat is capable of resis ting breaking waves
to s ome deg re e , but the s e mus t not be large nor o ccur
t o o frequently . The more frequent wave forces and
run-up have to be ab s o rbed by the hard revetment .

The location of the reve tment / g rass mat t ransi t i on can

theoret ically be selected at a lower level if account
is t aken of the wave-run-up reduction due to the
e f f e c t of a rough and open slo p e , the pre s ence of an
out er berm, the wave-reducing e f f ect of a high-level
f o r e shor e , or a combina t ion of all the s e
p o s s ibilit ies . The determinat i on of the t rans ition
locat ion is , however , o f t en a mat ter of exp erience
combined wi th local circumstances ( d ebri s-line
observations related to past occurences of damage ; the
" trial and error" metho d , et c ) or the application of a
prac t i cal " rule of thumb " ( f o r exampl e half-way
be tween " d es ign" level and bank crest level ) .

Knowledge on t he r e s i s t ance o f grass mats agains t

b reaking waves or wave run-up is at present limi t ed .
Care has to be t aken at a t rans ition that the
d i s continui ty is as small as p o s s ible in order to
p revent the p o s s ibility of local undermining . I t is ,
f o r that reas o n , no t recommended to drive a s o li d line
of p o s t s along the revetment ' s to p�edge , which
pro j ec t s above the plane of the revetment , as is
s ometimes d one to prevent f loating debris getting on
to the gra s s mat !

The p rinciple of the trans ition cons truction mus t b e :

a greater st reng th than the grass mat wi th a hyd rauli c
roughnes s about equal t o that o f the grass mat . A

41
 s trip of double-thicknes s " road-b ricks * " , placed " on
edge" ( 0 . 1 0 m high ) , with t op soil f i lled j o int s ,
would be sat isfac t ory ; this s t rip of bricks mus t ,
howeve r , get the opportunity to b e thoroughly
integrated with a well-gr own gras s-mat .

A less labour-int ens ive and more e f f e ctive p o s s ibility

comp rises the use of concrete blocks wi th ear th- f i lled
perforati ons f or grass to g row through . The units
used for this type o f app licat ion are much bigger and
heavier than r oad-bri cks . Als o , the dis cont inuity o f
the trans i t ion f rom revetment to soil is reduced , and
it is to be exp e cted that the grass will f orm better
and deeper roots int o the clay sub s o i l . Problems can
be created in the context of mowing the g rass if and
when concrete element s are not placed to accurate
lines and leve l s , or when they have s e t t led to
d i f f e rent leve l s .

When the uppe r edge i s only p ro t e cted by a c oncrete

s trip , a relative ly sma l l amount of unde rmining could
cause sub s tantial damage . In such cases it is
recommended that the concr e t e s t rip is supported by
p o s t s driven t o t op-of -concrete or a little below tha t
leve l .

When hollow concrete blocks f o r grass growth are

employed , no support posts are needed as the blocks
are suf f iciently s table . That cons t ructi on method has
an important add i t i onal advant age when the embankment s
are grazed by sheep* * , b ecause the sheep ' s habit o f
f orming a path along the reve tment-top edge will b e
p r event e d .

8.3 T r ans i t i ons t o

other revetment s
When two dif f e rent typ e s of revetment ad j o in , special
attent ion should be g iven t o the sub s o i l .

When f or examp le a f ine-grained soil exi s t s

immed iat e ly along s ide a coar s e r mate rial ( s ee Fig 17 )
there is a danger that the f iner material under
influence of gr ound wat er flow and soil pressures will
penet rate into the coarse mat e ria l . This is a
dis advantage to the drainage func t ion of the coa rs e
mate rial and can also lead to local s lope •

s e t t lement s .

* Trans lat o r ' s note : Roads i n Ho lland a r e of ten

brick-p aved , us ing spe cially deve loped bricks for
that purp os e .

* * Trans lat o r ' s not e : C ommon maintenance method in

Holland t o keep the clay wel l-c ompacted ; and
provides income !

42
The " s and-tightnes s " requirement can be s a t i s f ied
thr ough an effective g ranular comp o s i t ion of the
coarse material ( granular f ilter des ign ) . It is of ten
easier and cheaper to use a geo textile as a f i l te r , or
use a concrete separa t o r to prevent migration of the
f iner material .

Prob lems can of ten be c reated at the t rans i t i ons

be tween coars e mat erials , for examp le colli ery shal e ,
s lag, g rave l , rubbl e , et c . , and the f iner soil such as
s and and clay . The s i tuat i on shown in Fig 17 , where
the f ine and coarse materials are ind icat e d , als o
ne eds to be cons idered for the measure s requi red in
order to prevent undermining of the asphalt-concrete
when damage occurs t o the concrete block revetment .

Various methods of cons t ruction t o reinf o rce the

t rans i t i on are pos s ible . For examp le the following : -

(a) Let the asphalt-c oncrete ext end a short d i s t ance

over the colli ery shale ( i ns t ead of the sharp
b reak shown F ig 1 7 ) . A dis advantage is that
wave-impact p re s sures wi l l be transmi t ted
underneath the asphalt-conc r e t e , with the
ass ociated dange r that the asphalt cover could be
lifted.

(b) Increase the thickne s s of the asphal t-concrete in

a s trip along the j o int . This can however cause
prob lems during cons t ruct i on , where a t rench has
t o be cut t o provide the depth requi red .

( c) Construct a row of p o s ts with boards ( ke ep ing

tips jus t below the s lope-sur f ace ) .

(d) F ill the j o ints of the upper layers of block s

with bitument . This is only pos s ible i f the
j o ints offer adequate space to do s o .

I t i s p o s s ible with the appli cation o f an edge o f

concre te s trips or boards ( s e e Fig 18 ) , a t the
t rans it ion from concrete blocks to basal t-columns , t o
p revent the clay pene t rat ing the rubb le base-layer
under the basalt . The concrete edging should be
suf f i ciently dee p .

The expe rience o f the authorities in charge o f

embankment maint enance shows that the re i s fairly
cons ide rable damage o ccurring at trans i t ions such as

43
that shown in Fig 1 8 . The caus e can be in the
p o s s ibility that the basalt co lumns are not
suf f i ci ently tightly held by the concre t e s trip , and
also in the foundation discontinuity at the
t rans i tion . With the basalt blocks thus being le s s
t ight ly packed , and wave-impact p r e s sures i n the
rubble f ounda t ion layer building up as escape into the
c lay unde r the c oncrete blocks is not pos sible , the
basalt blocks would be sub j ec t ed to greater uplif t
pres sures . Greater s tability could be p roduced by
pene t ra t ing say a s trip of 0 . 5 m of basalt blocks
along the trans ition line with liquid bi tumen .

For concrete s lope-reve tment sys tems which have

p olygo nal s haped e lement s , simi lar to the bas alt block
s hape , and which a l s o have t o be placed on a granula r
f i lter , n o special attention needs t o b e given t o the
t rans i t ion . Care is needed in one respect , ie that
the granular f i l t e r mat erial und e r the concrete block
cannot migrate into the rubble layer under the basal t ,
b e cause i t could lead t o sub s idence . In such cas e s a
g ranular trans i t i on s trip will be required .

In order t o i l lus trate t o what extent the pressures

under a revetment can rise for ins t ance as a result of
the c l o sure o f a permeable filter with a concrete
p l ank , Fig 19 is presented .

The f low-nets s hown were determined by compute r . F o r

more inf o rma t i on on this sub j ect the CUR-VB / COW rep o r t
"Backg round t o the Guide t o Concrete Block Revetment s "
( Re f 3 2 ) should b e consul ted .

It is recommended tha t , as a general rul e , t rans i t i ons

t o o ther types o f revetment in the longitudinal
direction of the embankment should be avoided as much
as po s s ible . It is des i rable tha t a bank slope should
be p r o tec ted by one type of revetment from the toe t o
the top-edge , and e s pe ci ally an unde rlayer with the
s ame permeability throughout . This is o f t en , however .
no t p o s s i bl e , f o r ins t ance when an exis ting revetment
is being extend e d , and where at many recent
embankment s the hard reve traent is altered f rom s tone
to an asphalti c reve tment .

When concrete edge-s t rips or boards are placed a t

right angles to the longitudinal bank dire c tion , the
chang e-over is more favourably placed . In these cas e s
only tho s e waves which arrive o n the s l o p e at a n angle
could cause some extra pressures under the blocks in
the corners along the t op-edge . An advantage of
conc rete edge-s t rips p laced in this direct ion is tha t
the s lo p e is then divided into separate compartment s ,
thus p reventing s t eady progress ion of any damage along
long lengths o f bank .

44
 c o n cr e t e b l o cks

Gravel

- -�
· -
· p"e n etratt.o o · ·
• "" •
•
I• • • • • •\

• i
i .
I .
I • .
. !
sane!. _
.I
I • ;
. . .

. . ' .

. -
-� -- - - +
I
- - - - - -

T
----�---------- -- ---- --

Fig. 1 7 Penetratio n of sand i nto the m i n e waste ston e (col l iery waste o r
shale)

Rubble

Brick
layers
�..
Fig. 1 8 . Transition from basalt columns t o concrete blocks.

' '
 filter

pressure differences : .
pressure u n d er b l o c k
pressure a b o v e b lo c k

a. p r e s s u r e d i f f er e n c es d u e to b o a r d i n filter
p h r e a tic l i n e in filter
���-

b. p r e s s u r e differences for co ntinuous filter

Fig. 1 9 . Increased pressures associat e d wit h disturbances in t h e pe rme a b l e filte r

 In order to use concrete edgings as stops to fur the r
damage-deve lopment , these edgings have to be
suf ficiently heavy and deep . Making edgings too deep
can be dangerous as it would make a s eparat ion cut in
the foundat ion layer .

It is very imp o rtant to e nsure that blocks form a g o o d

and s t rong fit agains t the concrete edging s .

9 CONSTRUCTION
ASPECTS

9.1 General
The concr e t e block revetment differs mainly from a
natural s t one revetment by being more regular in shap e
and also mor e accura te in measurement . This type o f
revetment can , theref ore , be p laced i n the traditional
"manual " metho d , using special i s ed labour
( s t one-s e t te r s ) but al so by means of machines operat e d
by ski lled men . Us ing cranes f i t ted with s pecial
clamps the blocks can be pi cked up and placed quickly
and accura t ely , which is part icularly us eful for the
larger s i z e blocks . The i nc reased production rat e s
are often required a s mos t s i t e cons t ruc tion works o n
coas tal d e f ences have t o b e carried out ( in Holland )
be tween mid Ap ril and mid Octobe r , and even then
probably only when tides p ermit acces s .

9.2 Product
The blocks , co lumns or slabs f or concrete reve tment s
should be manufactured in we l l-equipped factories
under exp ert supervis i on in order t o ensure a cons tant
high-quality s tandard , b o th f o r the concre te
comp o s i t ion (parti cularly imp o r tant for the aggre s s ive
coastal environment ) and f or, the dimensi onal accuracy
needed f o r mechani cal placing .

All appropriate reve tment e l ements should b e quali t y

tes ted according to t h e s tandards specified ( s ee
Chap ter 4) .

9 .3 S t o rage and
t rans port
Af ter fabrication the blo cks have to be s tored f o r
hardening , and mechanical damage has t o b e p r evented .
Handling operati ons should therefore be limited to a
minimum .

For trans port to the s i t e , the s t orage area mus t be

eas ily acces s ible by road or wat er . As it will be
very rare that blo cks delive red from f actory s to rage
to site can be placed direc tly on the s lope , it is
generally necessary t o have a tempo rary s t o rage yar d
a t site .

45
 When blocks are destined to be placed mechani cally ,
the uni ts should be approp riately assembled at the
f actory so that they need no re-arrangement f o r
s i t e-placement . S i t e s tacking should be done on lev e l
gr ound to prevent the s tacks slid ing o r falling over .

It is impo rtant to check tha t s t o rage and t rans p o r t

a r e arrang e d to elimina te s o i l adhering to the uni t s
a s this would cause problems with accuracy o f
p lacing . Trans port vehicle s should be able t o cope
wi th the terrain at s i t e .

9 .4 Cons truction
Reve tm.ent s compr�s�ng concrete blocks or columns are
in general placed directly on the p repa red s lope
materials , eg clay , colli ery shal e , broken s t one
( gravel s i z e ) or s i lex . B e caus e the c oncre te block s
are dimens i onally accurat e , it is neces sary to fini s h
the b a s e accurately t o p r o f il e . Templates are in
g eneral us e f o r this purpos e , with planers or s c rapers
employed t o p ro duce the d e s i red profile and leve l s ,
dep ending on the base mat erial used , eg clay , f i l t e r s ,
etc ( s ee Chap ter 5 ) .

P lacing larger uni ts by hand requires much labour and

limi t s produc t i on , so that this method wil l b e used
only to obtain good trans i t i ons t o exi s ti ng
reve tment s , or f o r repair s to systems whi ch are not
suited t o mechanical placing .

For mechanical p lacing cranes are us e d , to p i ck- up

s everal e lements a t once (wi th clamp s ) , f or direct
p lacing on th� s lo p e . These mul tiples o f e l ements can
cover area s b e tween 1 and 3 m 2 . The s e can be placed
by the crane with s ome f orce t o p rovide a good
contact wi th the ad j oining b locks . Produc t i on can of
course be increased by employing s everal c rane s .

Revetments wi th large j o int spaces , such as f o r

examp le occurs with polygonal concrete columns , nee d
t o have the j o ints f i lled with great care , f o r exampl e
with broken s t one t o produce a f i rm , immova ble , but
permeable surface .

Problems do occasionally occur with the j o int f i lling

in the lat ter cas e , when blowing sand f ills the j o int s
before the b roken s t one can be hamme red i n .

10 MANAGEMENT AND
MAINTENANCE

10 . 1 Ins p e c t i ons
There i s a t lea s t one annual ins pection of the
complete slope protection, p rimarily f o r s a f e ty
reas ons , carried out by tho s e who are respons ible for
the maintenance .

46
 -------� � �-��� �

The responsible bodies are commonly taken to be the

" waterschappen " * ; p r ovincial and Central Government
embankments als o exi s t as do occas ionally local
Council embankments .

Att ention is d i rec ted towards e s s ential repairs of f o r

example sub s ided parts o f the slope and renewal o f
worn-out a reas , o r ext ension o f exist ing s lope
protection. Af ter each s t orm tide an extens ive
inspect ion is conducted at low tide to locate any
pos s ible damage . (This is usually done by the
engineer or surveyor to the B oard ) . Maintenance
s t af f , re tained by such Boards , take note of any
damage during their daily work s chedules .

As the Provincial Governments are usually charged with

the task o f overall supervi s i on of coas tal defence s ,
the Provincial t e chnical s taff also carry out
ins p ecti ons . Due to the supe rvis ory task the accent
is on the c ontrol aspect of inspections rather than o n
the duty t o f ind damaged bank slopes .

10.2 Maintenance
Annual maintenance covers broadly the follo�wing
activie s : -

Repair o f damage after heavy wave-attack . This can

b e limited t o very local damag e , for examp le a
single b lock that was " lifted" and no t re turned t o
i t s own pos i t i on . I t may , however , als o concern
more extens ive damage , for example at conne c t ions
t o other cons t ruc tions .

D ep ending on the nature of the damage , the repai r

would comp ri s e the breaking out of a s ingle eleille nt
and replacing i t with f resh concrete f i ll p laced
on-s i t e , or a great e r area has to be broken out ,
and af ter f illing in the under-layer to the co rrec t
leve l s , the blocks or new elements are put back in
agai n .

Where damage o ccurs repeatedly in the same

location, inve s tigations would clearly be requi red
into the cons t ruction of the slope in that area ,
and introduce appropriate counter-measures .

Repairs on s i t e of sub s idence which occurred as a

result of soil-lo s s e s or due to collaps e

* Wat er s chapp en ( o r Polders ) : Something like

Internal Drainage Boards , ie farmers , landowne r s ,
forming a legal g roup (Board ) to take care o f
drainage , floodbanks , pump ing etc , all to s erve the
combined benef it of their 0�1 communi ty .

47
 ( d i s placement ) o f the toe-c ons truc t ion . In the s e
cases the t o e-cons t ruction and the und erlying
ma t erials wi ll be imp roved at the same t ime . Co s t s
are o f ten high be caus e the whole slope reve tment
has to be removed from the toe up to the top-edge
and on b o th sides at an angle of about 4 5 ° to the
t op .

Extens i on o f exi s ting revetment areas above and

below can also be counted as part of the
maint enanc e . Downward ext ens i on when s ome of the
f o resho re is removed , and upward extens i on when the
damage p a t t e rn indicates the need f o r ext ended
p r o t e c t ion .

Improvement works of limi ted ext ent , or works o f

greater extent over a number o f year s , can b e
c ount ed a s part o f mai ntenance . These impr oveme n t
works could be fairly dras t i c and include renewal
of toe-cons t ruction, unde r-layers and reve tment
cons truc t i on .

Repair of damage created by anglers lif t ing ou t

blocks or o ther forms of vandali sm .

Repair of damage due to s t randing of ships ,

d e ck-l oads or drif t ing ice .

10 . 3 Repair feasibility
In compar i s on wi th natural s tone reve tment s , the
f easibility of repairing c oncrete b lock revetments i s
i n some cases more res t ri c ted , becaus e : -

the int e r-conne ction b e tween blocks is o f t en much

greate r , which makes removal of single element s
more d i f'ficul t ;

i t i s imp o s s ible t o push s i ngle e lements back in

their own place in the revetment ; it neve r f i t s .
Moreove r , it also generally s t rains the t rue
alignment .

These limi tati ons are not valid f or concrete e lement s

with shapes s imilar to basal t co lumns . Apart from the
re s t ri c t i ons ref er red t o above , o ther p o s s ibilities
include the f o l lowing : -

It i s p o s s i b le to cast s ome e lements in-s i t u , as i s

the rul e when i rregular gap s have t o b e filled .
However , b e caus e pre cas t b locks are generally o f
superior qual i t y , repai rs should as much a s
pos s ib le be carried out us ing precast blocks . If
and when in-s itu concr e t e has t o b e used , attention
should b e d i rec ted to the p roduction o f a g o od and
dense concrete and good curing .

48
 The new blocks needed f or the repai rs can be
delivered readily and in small quant i ties . *

10 . 4 R e-us e
When blo cks have been placed withou t mo r t ar or asphal t
j o int-f illers , re-use of b locks is near ly always
pos s ible , unl e s s blo cks are too old or of poor
quality . With large e lements , such as s labs and
s tep-slopes , no re-use is pos s ible . Als o , f o r
c ons t ruct i ons when cement mortar or asphalt were u s e d
t o p enetrate the revetment , re-us e i s rarely poss ible
( f or revetment s ) . I t c ould p o s s ibly be used as
loos e-dumped material .

11 HYDRAULIC
BOUNDARY
CONDITIONS

11.1 General
In view of the function of ( coas t a l ) wat e r def ence s
the loads w i l l obviously be mo s t ly due to the acti ons
of long and / o r s ho r t waves . In broad outline the
f ol lowing wave phenomena can be d i s t inguishe d : -

(a) low-f r e quency water level changes , such as f lo o d

waves , tidal waves , wind set-up gradient s and
s e i che s ;

(b) wind waves and swel l ;

(c) ship ' s waves in navi gable waterways

p r imary wave with the drag-wave f o rming part

there o f ;

s e condary ships ' wave s ;

combinations o f p rimary and s econdary wave s ;

These water level variations s tr ongly inf luence the

area which needs t o be protected with hard revetment .

�vater level variati ons on canals and wat e r- s t orag e

channels** are compara t ively sma l l ; probably only
caus ed by lo ck-wate r , s eepage , drainage and wind
effec ts . Wat er levels on lakes can vary as a result

* Trans la t o r ' s not e : No ment ion is made of the

obvious sugges tion , ie keeping spare blocks in
s t rategically located s t ores !

** Translat or ' s not e : The Dutch word " b o e z em" cove r s

a l l wat e rway s , i n a f la t polder area , used f o r
run-off s t o rage a s well a s f or dis charge to
drainage pump s .
 of wind set-up , inf low or outflow of wat e r , and
evap oration. Water levels in a reservoir can chang e
markedly due to filling or emp tying , but rainfall and
wind s et-up can also p lay a role .

Water levels on a river are detemined by the r iver ' s

d i s charge regime , and in add i tion f or the lower
r eaches ( es tuarie s ) by tides and also wind-s e t-up .
F o r a coas tal def ence embankment water levels are
g ove rned by t i des and winds .

The mos t comp lex s i tuation occurs at coas t al banks ,

where wat e r level fluctuat ions can assume many f orms .
F o r this reason, and also t o reduce the volume of this
guide , the cons idera t i ons here will be limited to
coas t al banks .

The purpo s e of this chapter is t o provide backgr ound

inf o rmat i on on the various phenomena in preparation
for the matters d i s cu s s ed in Chap ters 1 2 and 1 4 . In
this context wind-waves and the wave-def o rmat ions in
f r ont of and on the banks wi ll be des cribed . F or mor e
in-d e p th considera t i ons one should ref er t o the
CUR-VB / COW report "Background to the Guide f o r
C oncr e t e Block Revetments " ( Ref 3 2 ) .

11 . 2 Wave
characteris tics

1 1 . 2 . 1 Individual wave
Wave theories have been known for 200 years . These
theories are based on the as sump tion that the wave can
be des cribed by the wave height H and the wave period
T ( or by the wave leng th L ) , and that the theories
refer to regular waves . Regular waves do not occur in
r eality a t s ea , but such waves are imp o rtant because
they cont ain the bas i c element s o f irregular sea
waves .

In general the real wave p henomena are very

c omp licated and dif f i cult t o exp re s s in mathema tical
terms , due t o non-linearitie s , three-dimensional
character is t ics and the random nature of waves . It is
the task of the s o-called determinis t ic theor ies to
f ormula te mathemat ically as accurately as pos s ible the
f o rm of the f ree surf ace and the motion o f a regular
wave for various wave heights and periods and at
d i f f e rent wat er dep ths . In d o ing so it is usual to
make a dis t inct ion be tween linear and non-linear wave
the o ries depending on which order of f l ow f orces is
taken int o account .

50
The signi f i cance of the mos t important theories i s
presented in F i g 2 0 . That f igure also gives a general
view o f the validity limi ts of the vari ous the ories .
The dimens i onle s s parameters H/ gT 2 and d/ gT 2 have been
used .

The vari ables used are as f o ll ows ( s ee Fig 2 1 ) : -

L wave leng th : the horiz ontal dis tance be tween two

suc c e s s ive wave-cres ts ;

T wave-pe ri o d : the time passage recorded at a

f ixed point between the pas s ing o f two
success ive wave cres t s ;

f wave f re quency = 1 / T

C wave celerity : also known as wave vel o ci ty o r

pha s e velocity - i t i s the speed with which the
image of the wave profile t ravel s ; it i s
there f o r e not the velocity of the wat er
particle s ;

H = wave height : the difference i n the l evels o f the

high e s t and lowe s t points of the wave profile ;

d water dep t h : measured in relation to the

s till-water leve l .

There are two class i c theories , one developed by Ai r y

( 1 8 4 5 ) and the o ther b y St okes ( 1 8 8 0 ) , which describe
the regular wav e . Thes e theories predict wave
behavi our generally be t ter , when the rat i o d/L is not
t oo small .

F or shallow wat e r the cnoidal wave theory, originall y

d eveloped b y Ko r t eweg and De Vri es ( 1 8 9 5 ) , o f t en gives
a reas onabl e appr oximat ion f or s ingle waves . That
theory is , however , fairly dif f i cult t o calcul at e .
For waves in very shallow water the s olitary-wave
theory pres ent s the be s t me thod to describe the waves .
In contrast t o the cnoidal theory, the s o li tary-wave
theory is reas onably easy to manipulate .

Sea-wave s can be subdivided into : -

developing s ea , when waves are growing under the

influence of the wind ;

swe l l : this comprises s ea waves which have been

withdrawn f rom the action of the wind (whi ch
originally c reated the wave s ) , ei ther becaus e the
wind died d own , or because the wind-f ield has moved
els ewhere , or due to the waves having moved out o f
the wind f i eld .

51
 -shallow water-+------ transition r egion -----!-- deep water -

.j -r---r-------
�---.�--.- -. -,_,:---1
0 . 0 L. ..----
--. -,.---+---r------:-
.
-
H--r
,-. --r-1�---,
0 = 0 . 1 t. - -� - - -i =---i--i---+-��
-
L0
t. t h ' o rder ·
o . o2 r-----+--------:--::r-�-::::;:::=;====.r==<
I
I .
3 rd ' o rder ;
0,01
0 , 0 0 8 1--;....-----.--
' 0 , 0 0 6 �,.-------+---� I
'
I

0 . 0 OL. 1--1--- --T-----::

, I . I
Sto kes 2 n d·' o r d er . ·
I' !
i
0 , 0 0 2 �+------+

0,001
0 .0 0 0 8
0,0006

:x:!� O , O O O L.

0, 0002
I i :

lin ear theory {Airy)

0 . 0 0 0 1 �...----,<---,--+---,�---'--t-�
0 .0 0 0 0 8 1---:;t'------..f--7'---------------'-------t----t
.I
a· o o o o 5 1"-�--+-----b''--------------------+-

. ----+--�-�-----------r--_._�----r-­
o . o o o o t. �+--
i
0 , 000 0 3 '---t-----'----'-------------�-----'---
0.0003 0.001 1 0 . 0 0 £. ! 0,01 0,04 0.1 0,3 j i i
0 , 0 0 0 1. 0 .002 0 .0 0 6 0.02 0.06 0.2 0 .4

d
g T2

Fig. 20. Ranges of validity of the various wave theories.

Shal l o w water T ransit i o n zone D e e p wat e r

d d d
I � 0,04 0,04 < I < o,s I -;;;, o,s

L . L · gT 2 rr d L gT
Wave c e l e r i t y c = r = fid C = r = lrr tanh C = Co = r =
L 2rr

Group velocity c� = C = fid C, � � � + .

smh
4 rr d
L
4rr

L
)
d
C C =
�
1
2 C=
gT
-i rr

gT2 2rrd gTl

Wave length L = Tfid = CT L = - tan h - , - = C0 T
L = Lo = -
2 rr L _ rr

Ta b l� 1 . M o s t i m p o rt a n t fo rm u la e of t h e linea r wave t heory.

 wave celerity c

i
l
� s till w a ter

trough

b o tt am z = -d

Fig. 2 1 . Profile of a single wave.

Swell d i f f e r s ap preciably from develop ing s ea wave s
unde r wind inf luenc e . Firs tly becaus e the appearanc e
of the waves change s s i gni f i cantly and very quickly
after the wind drops or reduces : the whi t e cre s t s have
d i s ap p eared and the sho r t small waves have been
attenuated through int e rnal friction , so that the
waves look much smo o the r . Over longer dis t ances the s e
waves a r e sub j ected to two gradual change s , i e l o s s o f
height and ext ens i ons o f the wave period . Because the
s tability of a concrete b lo ck revetment depends
s trongly on the wave period ( s e e als o Chap ter 1 3 ) , the
design has to t ake swell into account in cer tain
cases .

For the prediction of wind waves s everal metho d s a r e

avai lable , s e e the references ( 2 1 ) and ( 2 4 ) .

Linear wave theory f o r small amp l i tud e s

Reference i s mad e i n this Guide t o the linear wave

theory ; a b road outline o f this theory wil l ,
the r ef o r e , b e g iven here .

The linear or Airy-Laplace wave theory commence s w i t h

t h e following assump tions : -

s inus oidal surface o f the wate r ;

small amp l i tud e s , i e H < < L , H << d ;

f lat bed

" id ea l " l i qui d , i e f r i c t i onl es s , incomp r e s s ible ,

homogene ous ;

air movement does not influence the wave mo tion .

It is usual to split relative water d ep ths d /L in the

f o llowing zone s :

shallow water � � 0 .04

L
trans i t i on . z one 0 . 04 < � < 0.5
L
d
deep wat er _ =? 0 . 5
L
The relati onship be twe en wave l ength L , wave pe riod T
and celerity C is as follows : -

C =
L
T
Thi s f o rmula i s valid in general , independ ent of wave
height or dep th of wa ter .

52
 The veloci ty wi th which a group o f waves progres s e s is
in g eneral not equal t o the cele rity o f the individual
waves wi thin the gr oup . While the wave cre s t s move at
a celerity C , the who le group moves at a group
velocity Cg . B o th the o ry and experience ind icate tha t
in deep water the g roup moves at a velocity whi ch is
half that of single wave celeri ty .

In very shallow water the single wave celerity and the

g roup veloci ty will become equal . For practical
application the impor tant formulae have been
summari s ed in Tabl e 1 .

1 1 . 2 2 Local
•

characteris tics
o f the
individual
wave-field
Ir regular waves are much mor e diff icult to describe
than r egular wave s . The chaotic character of waves
p roduced by wind is the real feature of tho s e waves .
This apparent chaos can only be put into s ome s ort o f
o r d e r b y exp r e s s i ng certain phenomena i n terms of
chances o f occurrenc e , hence it is necessary to make
use of probabil i t y theory .

The s ta t i s t i cal parameters in normal use can b e

employed t o des cribe wave dis tribution . In practice
f or coas t al defence works the smaller waves are o f ten
neglected , and the average o f the highes t 1 / 3 part o f
the waves is adopted as the signifi cant wave height .
This signi f i cant height is approximately equal to the
wave height e s t imat ed by an experienced observe r . Its
value is commonly indicated b y Hs .

A d i s advantage of H s is that it gives only a very

approximat e descrip t ion of the to tal wave-picture .
B ecause many o f the rules g overning p robability
proce s s es ( s tochas tic proce s ses ) do not have a
completely arbitrary charac ter , they can be described
by means o f theoret ical dis tribution functions .

Wave heights of i rr egular wind waves can be des cribed ,

with a reas onable degree of accuracy , by the Rayleigh
dis tribution functi on ( s ee Fig 22 ) :

in whi ch :

the chance of exceeding the wave height H

53 '
 I I
1,00

�I i
!
i

!
I

I II I
:
i
:
I
0 . 75
I

!I I

I
l

0,50
\�I '
i
!

l!fri l -z(lit
1
.

i
I
I
i
i
i

I
P, " .
H,

I
· �
�
I

I I
I

� I !'
0.25 ......

I .

I
I
i '

i
i
i
I r--- --L
i
i

1 50 1 .75 2.00 -
0.50 . 0.75 1.00 1.25
0 0.2::

H
Hs

Fig. 22. Curve rep resenting the Rayle i g h distribution function.

 H individual wave height ( s to chas tic value ) (m)

H individual wave height (m)

Hs s i gnifican t wave height ( m )

Wave p e riod and length i n a n i rregular wave s ys t em a r e

ra ther mor e complicated than the height . F o r
p ractical purposes the p e riod has been defined a s the
mean period T, which is the mean value of the time T
between two zero-level cros s ings of the s ignif i cant
wave period T s , which is the mean value of the highe s t
1 / 3 r d part o f the waves . F o r the descrip tion o f
i rregular wave s use can thus b e made o f two
parameters : firs tly the signi ficant wave height Hs and
secondly the mean wave period T or the s i gnifi cant
wave p eriod T s ·

Ano ther pos sibility to d es cribe the wave pat te rn i s

the wave-spectrum ; i n contr a s t t o the s ignificant
wave-height sys t em , this presents fully the
s tatis tical properties of irregular wave s . In this
method the energy - dens i ty E is defined as a function
o f the frequency f o f the spectral component s .

11 .3 Wave
d e f orma tions

1 1 . 3 . 1 llave
d e f orma t i ons in
f r ont o f
embankments
Waves as they approach our (Dutch ) coa s t undergo in
general subs tantial def ormat i ons before they reach the
t oe of the bank . This i s due t o : -

(a) Refraction

When a wave enters water wi th a dif f erent

depth , the celerity changes , as do the
leng th and height so that the circums t ances ,
whereby the wave distri bu t i on does not
coincide with the direc tion of the
dep th-change , als o change the direction of
the waves . One of the mos t imp ortant
aspects on which refraction calculati ons can
provide an answer is the question at which
loca t ions in f ront of the coa s t will
wave-peaks mee t ( and through convergence
crea t e increased wave mo tion in f ront of the
bank . )

(b) Diffraction

Wi thout changing wave length or period , the

wave bends ar ound coas tal proj ections or

54
 dams . This phenomenon is usually at tended
and d ominated by refraction.

(c) Shoaling

Shoaling o f waves denotes the process o f

t rans f o rma t i on o f the wave s as a result o f
propagation in regi ons o f varying wa ter
depth , whe re the wave-direction runs
parallel to the shoaling . Where the bed
level g radually rises the wave leng th
reduces , whi l s t the wave height increas e s ;
the wave-p eriod remains constant .

(d) Bed- f ri c t ion

This can be neglected in relatively deep

water , but near the coas t the loss o f energy
can markedly reduce wave-energy . However ,
in many s i tuat i ons the influence of this is
small in compari s on with the phenomena
referred to above .

(e) Local wind

In contr a s t to energy lo s s es through

bo t t om- f r i c t i o n , lo cal winds can add energy .
A wave- f i eld approaching the coast can in
this way abs o rb an appreciable amount of
energy ove r , for example , the f inal 1 0
kilome t re s .

(f) Currents

Wave d e f o rmat i ons are also caused by change s

in current s . Waves have a tendency t o
converge t o locations where their celeri ty
is reduced the mos t or to diverge to
locations whe re their celerity increas e s .

(g) Wave b reaking

A high-level shore in front o f the bank wil l

reduce the wave-a t tack on the bani.<. to a
greater or les s er degree . The soli tary wave
theory expre s se s thi s for very shallow wa ter
with a fixed ratio between depth d b where
the waves br eak and the height of the
breaking wave Hb .

The d e p th d b d eno tes in this context the vertical

dis tance f rom the bottom to the wave trough ,
which for this type of wave with the s ol i tary

ss
 wave character istic , nearly coincides wi th the
s t i l l-water level at that lo cat ion .

A formula much used f or irregular waves is :

in which :

Rmax maximum s ignificant wave height a f t e r

b reaking ;
vert ical distance from the bo t tom to s t i l l
water leve l .

A high-level f oreshore o r s andbank in f r ont o f

the bank therefore acts a s a sort o f filter for
the waves : only the smaller waves pass throug h .

1 1 . 3 . 2 Wave-breaking
on the bank
s lope
When waves break on a bank s lo p e , various breaker
shapes can be d i s t inguis he d , depend ing on
wave-s t eepne s s and the slope gradient . The breakers
will also d i f f er in energy-di s s ip ation and exerted
f o rces .

A characteristic parame t er which is us ed f or various

breaker types i s the wave-breaking parame t er :

in which : IX = s lope g radient

H wave height
Lo wave l ength in deep wate r
aT 2
= �
2 'Jt
g gravitational accelerati on
T wave period

The d i f f e rent types o f breaker can be roughly

clas s if ied according to the following table ( smoo th
s lope ) : -
.. ..

I; < 1 spi lling increas ing

1 <
I; < 2.5 p lunging wave- s t eepne s s
2.5 <
I; < 3.2 plunging-co llap sing
3.2 <
I; < 3 .4 collaps ing-surging decreasing
3.4 <
I; surging slope gradient

The wave-breaking parameter I; is also used to describe

the s tability of placed concrete blo ck revetment s .

56
Spill ing b r eaker :

B r eakers of the ove r-f oaming type occur on very f l a t

gradi ent s ( s ee F i g 23 ) . The s e breaker s cont inue
running up over a subs tantial dis tance , los ing energy
continuous l y through breaking wi t h f oam-f orma t i on at
their cres t s , until thes e have d i s ap p eared
al togethe r .

P lunging b r eaker :

B reakers of the ove r turning type ( plunging b reake r )

o ccur on s omewhat s teeper b o t t om gradi ent s and when
the d eve lopment of the wave-crest in s hallow wat er i s
not dis turbed appre ciably by other e f f e c t s such as
wind , c r o s s ing waves , current s , irregularities on the
b o t t om , etc ( s e e Fig 2 4 ) . The overturning breaker is
charac terised by the occurrence o f a wat e r-curtain
which i s as it wer e " p oured down" and det ached f r om
the f r ont of the wave-cres t . S uch b reakers have ,
a f t e r turning ove r , which takes place in a short space
of t ime , only a little residual ener gy l ef t .

On a comparat ively s t eep b o t t om g radient the wave

deformat ion proces s , until f inal breaking , takes place
over a shorter d i s tanc e . There is thus l e s s chance o f
d i s turbing effects than on a flatter b o t t om gradien t ,
and the s t e eper gradients have theref ore an advantage
in general f or the development of overturning
b reake r s .

Furthermore , a small init ial wave-s teepne s s als o

encourages the overturning breaker f o rma t ion, p r ovid e d
that o ther circums tances d o n o t oppose such a c t i on .
With a small ini tial wave steepne s s the deve lo pment t o
a s o l i tary wave c ont inues further and at tains
eventually a grea t e r heigh t , s ta r t ing out f r om a given
initial height , so that a greater " li f t " of the cres t
o c cur s than can be reached from init ially s teeper
waves .

Collaps ing break e r

B reake rs o f the nearly-overturning t y p e ( collaps ing

breake r ) come be tween the " p lunging " and the " s urging "
b reaker types ( s ee Fig 2 5 ) . In this f orm of b r eaker a
vertical crest exi s t s which has only partially
c ollap s ed .

Surging b reake r :

Heaving b r eake rs ( or surging b reake r s ) can be obs e rved

when the bo ttom or slope gradi ent is s teeper s ti l l
( and particularly when the wave-s t e epne s s is very
small ) ( s e e Fig 2 6 ) .

57
The front of the wave cres t is then, as it were ,
lif ted up on the slope before the wave can turn ove r
and a vertical up-and-down water movement is crea ted
with a comparatively thin foaming layer o f water . The
wave energy is now mos tly reflected .

If the energy-delivery of the plunging breaker i s

compared quali tat ively wi th that o f the spilling
b reaker , the picture shown in Fig 27 is obtained . It
has to be realised here that in the fo regoing diagrams
the reality has been subs tantially simplified .

The cons iderations pres ented above are mo s t accurately

applied to regular waves which prog ress towards a flat
and smo o th s l o p e ; a s i tuation which can be achieved in
a labo ratory . In the natural si tuation there are many
factors which can d i s turb the picture pres ented above .

The wave-impact caus ed by the plunging b reaker o c cur s

at a depth which varies be tween 1 / 3 H and 2/ 3 H below
s till water leve l . The s i z e o f the wave-impact i s
diff icul t to determine o n a theore t ical basis . The
reasons f or this are : -

when a wave b reaks o n a s lope , a volume o f air i s

enclo s ed b e tween the wave-f r ont and the slope . The
thinner the ai r-cushion the greater will be the
maximum pres sure and the shorter the duration o f
the impa c t .

It is also pos sible that wave-impact takes p lace i n

the return f low of the previ ous wave . The thicke r
the layer o f returning flow, the smaller the impact
will be . The influence of the return flow
increas e s as the slope-angle decreas e s .

Fig 28 shows a s chematic diagram of a p lunging

breaker . When the revetment has some degree of
permeabili ty , the exte rnal wave-load forces will b e
able t o pene t rate part ially into the fil ter under the
revetment , with the pressures underneath having a
phas e-d i f fe rence with the pre s sures on top of the
revetment . The charac teris tics of pressure
propagat ion in the filter are , however , als o
diff icult t o model or t o des cribe theoretically .

l1uch res earch has been carried out into the wave­
impact phenome non; nobody has as yet succeeded to
describe it adequatel y , so that no theory can be
indi cated whi ch can be applied properly . In order to
get some impression o f value s , some measured data are
pres ented in Table 2 o f the wave impact sizes . The s e
values apply to a smoo th impermeable s lope . The
duration of the pres sure peak is in the order of 0 . 0 5
to 0 . 25 s e cond .

58
 Slope Angle Impact pressure in m
wat er column

1:2 2 .3 H
1:3 2, . 7 H
1 :4 2 .3 H
1:6 2.0 H

Table 2 Measured values o f the s i z e o f the shock

pres sure a t a wave impact

For a description of the wave run-up phenomenon ,

reference should be made to ( 2 2 ) and ( 25 , part XV ) .

12 PARTICULAR LOADS
Among s t the parti cular load ing s can be counted :

wreckage and deck-load s from shi p s

dri f t ing ice
f loating debri s
recreat ion
g rowing vege tation and sea-organi sms
grounding of ships or ship-impact

Wreckage and deck-loads f r om s hi p s

Depending on the dimensi ons o f wreckage and

deck-lo ad s , such i tems when carried by waves can exer t
great f orces o n revetment s . F o r normal practi ce i t
i s , however , o f ten not t o o bad ; i t is mo s tly wi thin
accep table limi ts s o that any damage can be repaired
a s part o f the normal r epai r s .

D r i f t ing i c e

Drif ting ice i s s omething which occurs much mor e

f requently i n lakes and river s than along the s ea
coas t , and for lakes and river banks can give r i s e t o
d amage o f embankments .

In order to obtain a r eliable basis f o r the

cons iderations in pred icting future ice-cond i t i ons , an
accurate analysis of exi s ting data is required in
relat ion to the factors which influence ice-f o rma t i on .
The fol lowing aspects are imp o r tan t :

(a) Factors whi ch d e termine water movement

hydrographic data : topography ( surface and

d e p th ) , exchange of water between s ea and
es tuary;

hydraulic data: water leve ls ( t i d e s ) ,

ve locities and tidal capaci ty .

59
 �
---
-
. . - .

Fig. 2 3 . Shape of the s p illing b reaker.

I- - -
-
- !- -
-
...... "-:::.- -

I -

I
I

... !
_l
Fig. 24. Shape of the p lunging b reaker.

- -- -- ---- -- -- ---
'

Fig. 25. Shape of the collapsing b reaker.

Fig. 26. S hape of the surg ing b reaker.

 Dissip a t i o n

Dissip a t i o n
. I
i
I

·I
a plunging breaker
1
b. spill tng breaker

Fig. 27. Comparison of the e n e rgy d i s s i p ation of the p lunging b reaker and of the s p i l l i n g
b reaker.

-- - - - ...... foam
'
'
. \

/
\
', S W L.
--., -
I
I ___-.

S.W.l. still w a t er line

. . . .

Fig. 2 8 . D iagram illustrating the descent of the b reaker tongu e .

(b) Factors which influence ice- f o rmation

climatalogi cal factor s : air and wa ter

temperature , wind , etc . ,

water salini t y ;

hydrographic factor s ;

ic e-supply f r om the river .

(c) I c e-observations

On a lake and in saline water in the shallowe r

areas , an i ce-f ield of great thicknes s can
d eve lop , which can locally increas e appreciably
where layers dri f t on top of each o ther . In
general the i ce-fields s tart to move under
i nf luence of the wind af ter thaw sets in and this
can cause seri ous damage to revetments .

In a lake the s i tuation is more s e ri ous becau s e

t h e point of attack of the ice-layers o n the bank
will be at or just below water l evel , i . e . at the
t oe-cons truction and the ad j o i ning lower slope .
In this context the s t rength of the ice i s
important ; saline water ice is usually weaker
( so f t e r ) than f resh water i c e . Parts of the
t oe-cons truction including the dumped s t one lower
slope protect i on could be p i cked-up by the i c e .

S uch ice-fields will not be s topped by bank

s lopes or obs t acle s on the slopes . The ice f ield
will f i t the water level contour along the s l o p e s
accurat ely and anything protruding above t h e
slope will probably be sheared o f f .

In this connection it i s pointed out tha t

proj ections f r om a placed-block reve tment , such
as rows o f piles or raised blocks to curb wave
run-up , form point s of at tack for the large
f orces which a moving ice-f ield can exer t . As a
result of such forces , damage need not be limi ted
t o the pro j ec t ing e lement s , but can extend t o the
s lope protection by li f ting out of element s .

In order to limit ice damage as much as p o s s ib l e

i t is desirable to f inish s l o p e s and thei r
reve tments as smo o th as p o s s ible .

Floating debr i s

Thi s will i n gene ral not cause any damage to hard

reve tments . Grass mats may suf f e r where the debris
covers i t . On rivers damage can be caused by
tree-t runks .

60
 Recreation

Concrete r evetments in general suf fer lit tle damage

f rom this source , but gras s mats can suf f e r f r om
ce rtain f o rms of recreation . Anglers can occas i onal l y
cause damage , b y removing a single element .

Vegetation and s ea o rgani sms

Vegetation can usually o btain a t oe-hold in the j o in t s

b e tween concre t e block s . Such vege tat ion is in
g eneral not damaging to the quality of a conc r e t e
block revetment .

In the z ones which are r egularly awash , the g r owth o f

algae and barnacles occur s ; the higher-order growth
o ccur s e s pecially where areas are not regularly
inundated .

Accidents t o shipping

A s t orm has a direct influence on shipping d i s as ter s ;

chances of coincidence are real . Thi s has t o be taken
into account along busy shipping r out e s .

In such accidents the c ontribution of the revetment t o

the s tabi l i ty o f the s ea defences agains t such loads
is not larg e . lihen ther e is a demand that the
s ea-wall should be able t o resis t such extr eme
loading s , the main r e s i s tance will have to be f ound i n
the mas s o f the sea-wall body .

13 STABILITY OF THE
HAND-SET BLOCK
REVETMENT

13 . 1 General
The s tabi l i ty of a revetment compris ing placed
( concre t e ) block e lements is influenced by s everal
variables , such as : -

(a) the characteri s t i c s o f the cons truction

( r evetment and unde r-laye r ) :

weight and / o r dimensi ons of the block element s ;

vo lumetric mass o f the material ;

friction between elements and the under-layer
and be tween the elements thems elve s ;

compre s s ive f orces ( p re-s tres s ) in the p lane o f

the revetment ;

interlo ck b e tween the individual e lemen t s ;

permeability of r eve tment and unde r-laye r ;

61
 ���-� ��------

s lope angle and shape of the slope ;

s and-tightness and erosion r e s i s t ance of the

und er-lay e r ;

influence of t rans ition cons truction o n the

s tr eng th of the revetment ;

roughnes s and water-st orage capacity of the

r evetment ;

- long term characteris tics ( durability? ) .

(b) the hydraulic boundary cond i t i ons :

,.ave spectrum (wave heights and periods ) ;

- grouping o f waves ;
- angle of wave attack;
breaker-type and breaking location;
- wave run-up;
wind e f f e ct s ;
wave def orma t i on in f ront o f the sea-wal l ;
curr en t s ;
- ins tantaneous water leve l ;
f r e quency of o ccurrence of a specifi c
hydraulics boundary cond i tion on a s p ec i f i c
location o n the s lop e .

This summary o f variables i s probably not comp l et e ,

but it does indicate the s i z e of the problem . The
quantit a tive e f f e c t of many o f thes e variab les is a s
y e t insuf fici ently known .

The f ai lure of a construction or part o f a

cons truct i on occur s if the loading exceeds the
s treng th . As with traditi onal building cons t ructi o n
the que s t ion may be direct f ailure due t o exc e s s ive
loading , and a f ai lure due t o medium but f requently
o ccur ring loadings ( e . g . erosion ) . The f i r s t type of
f ai lure i s of impor tance f or the revetment , and the
s econd type for the unde r layer and hence indirec tly
for the revetment .

The notion of s tabili ty has to be viewed f o r

individual element s and f o r the slope a s a whole . The
r e s i s t ance agains t li f ting out a s ingle e lement r e l i e s
on its weigh t , poss ibly increased b y frict ional
r e s i s t ances imp o s ed by ad j o ining blocks . When the
f r i c tional forces be tween element s are large , or i f
cohesion i s ob t ained i n another manner ( interlock
s y s t em ) , then the s tab ility is det ermined not by the
s ingle element but by the s lope protect ion as a who l e .

Where b lo cks have been placed alongside each o ther

wi thout interlock or j ointing ma te rial s , the saf e s t
assump tion is t o calculate s tability o n the bas is o f

62
 the loo s e b lock . The firs t cons iderations presented
here will concern the loos e-lying element , after whic h
s ome thought wi ll be given to the s tability o f
interlock o r f r i c t i on revetments .

13 . 2 Lo o s e-lying
element s
I t is nec e s sary to diff eren t ia t e be t>Jeen elements
p laced on a permeable or on an impermeable base
laye r .

1 3 . 2 . 1 P e rmeable base
layer
For the dis turbance of the s tability of a loose
e lement on a permeable bas e , present views d i s t inguish
about 8 p o s s ible mechanisms : ( s ee Fig 29 ) .

(a) When wave run-up has reached i t s maximum leve l ,

the f low re turns under influence of gravi ty .
During this r e turn f l ow , pressures on the
r evetment reduce . When the revetment is
( hydrauli cally) r ough , the return f low can result
i n current f o r ce s , ine r t ia forces and lif t
f orces .

(b) D e p ending on the p ermeab i l i ties and the geome t ry ,

the water in the filter , which has pene trated
through the revetment , cannot f l ow back directly ,
which resul t s in forces at t emp t ing to lif t the
revetment . In general the height reached by the
wave run-up above s till water level is grea t e r
than the dep th t o which t h e wave withdraws below
s ti l l-water level . Becaus e of that the water
penetrates over a greater surface area into the
f i l te r , than the surface area where outf l ow
o c cur s . This results in a rise o f the phreati c
line i n the f ilter and through that a ri s e in
p r e s sures unde rneath the hand placed revetment .
This effect is cumulative for a numbe r o f wave s .

(c) When the following wave arrives at the s lope , the

pres sures on the slope increase under this wave .
Thes e p r e s sures can be t ransmi t ted through the
f i l t e r immediat ely in advance o f the wave f ront ,
again producing up lift pressures under the
r eve tment . Such pressures wi ll only occur over a
limi ted area ad j o ining the wave f r ont .

(d) Following the phase given under i tem ( c ) , the r e

are also subs tantial change s i n the
vel o ci ty-f ield due to the approaching wave . The
s t ream lines become curved , comparable with
eddies . As a r e sult of the curved veloci ty-field
the pressures above the revetment can be
reduced .

63 .
(e) A breaking wave will produce wave-impact on the
s lope , with s trongly ri s ing p r e s sures with a
durat i on of an approxima t e order of � to 1 / 2 0 o f
a s econd . Thes e pressures on the revetment can
b e transmi t t ed through the f i l ter and cause
shor t-duration pres sures under the revetment .

(f) Af ter this sho r t-lived phenomenon, a large mas s

o f water falls on the slope . The high pre s sures
can be t ransmi t t ed under the r eve tment , jus t
in f ront of the point where the wave breaks , and
thus result in uplif t pressures under the
r eve tment .

(g) Af t e r the wave makes contact with the slope , a

large reduct ion occurs in the pres sures on the
revetment ( even negative p r e s sur e s , i e below
a tmospheric ) . This phenomenon i s explained as
b eing caused through o s cillations o f the air
" cylinder " enclosed in the breaking wave .

(h) Af t e r the wave b r eaks , run-up t akes plac e .

During this las t phas e pressures on the revetment
increas e . There are at that s tage , however , no
cri t i cal ci rcums tance s in exi s tence ; except when
the revetment is rough or when blocks are partly
l i f ted out o f the revetment . In the s e cas e s
current f orces , inertia f or ces and lifting f o r c e s
o ccur .

It can be concluded from res earch carried out a t the

Delft Hydraulic Laboratory and the Delft Soil
Mechanics Laboratory tha t , under the circums t ances
prevailing during the t es ts , the failure-me chani sms
( b ) " quas i-s tationary pressure-d i f f e rences " and ( c )
" pr e s sures due t o the approaching wave-fron t " are very
important for the s tability o f a block reve tment . The
mechanisms discus s ed can , however , not be viewed
s eparately; a combination of mechanisms can occur .
F o r example , both wave-characteri s tics as well as
s l o pe angle will have influence on the importance o f
the various mechani sms .

Some examples of computer calculations f or mechani sms

( b ) and ( c ) have been illus trated in Fig 30 . For the
calculation the time was s t opped at the ins tant o f
wave breaking , whils t the phreatic line is near the
s t ill-water leve l . To the left o f the wave-breaking
point the excess pres sure of the breaking wave pushes
water through the revetment into the filter (me chani sm
c ) . On the right-hand side flow takes place from the
elevated phreatic level (mechanism b ) . B o th
mechani sms influence each other . For the revetmen t
s tabili ty it is more impor tant for b o t h mechanisms ( b )
and ( c ) to occur together than for each to occur
s eparately .

64
 a = forces d u e to
wave ru n-back
b = quasi-stationary
pressures from
with i n the
filter
c = p ressu res due to
the aooroach i n g
wave front
J d changes in the
/ / / A
•' '
velocity field
;,;� L�
I
L_
·'

_.:_ __L /___. '

____ . ___ ··- ---
e = wave i m pact
f = pressures d u e to
the mass of th e
break i n g wave
g = l ow pressures d u e
t o a i r esca p i n g
from t h e encl osed
cyl i n der of a i r
h = forces d u e to
i wave ru n-u p
/
/

L.
./ / /
--· _J._ _ ..:____ ...

Fig. 2 9 . S ch ematic rep re s entation o f t h e p os s i b l e failure m e chanisms.

 Row of units forced upwards by p ressure fro m w i thin the filter.

Pattern of damage associate d w i th i n d i v i d ual Damage at the transition from a basalt to a

stab i l i ty of the units . concrete s lope.
From the d i f f e rential pres sures ( p ressure above
revetment minus p r e s sure below revetment) shown i n
F i g 30 , it is clear that the revetment immediat ely t o
the right of the wave-breaking point is p o t ent ially
uns table , which means that the dif f erential pres sure
is greater than the weight of the revetment .

The mathemati cal approach i llus trated here is ,

howeve r , too cumbe r s ome for practi cal purposes ; for
further informati on one should consult the CUR/VB / COW
report of Ref 32 . "Background to the guid e on conc r e t e
bank-revetment s " .

The f oregoing considerations make it clear that it i s

no t a s imple mat t er t o produce a program f o r an
analyt ical computer model , whi ch can be used s imply i n
practice , for all pos s ib l e fai lure mechani sms ; this
has s o far only been reas onably, succe s s ful f o r
mechanisms ( b ) and ( c ) , using t h e necessary
s chemati cal repre s entati ons .

The analyti cal computer model ind i cated that the

perme ability rat i o s be tween the revetment and its
underlying f il ter a re o f g reat importanc e . This i s
expressed in the s eepage-length A: -

A = s in o: / kbd '
k'
where : a angle of the revetment s l o p e
k permeability o f the filter layer
k' permeability o f the b lock revetment
b thicknes s o f the filter layer
d =
thi cknes s o f the concrete revetment

The working-out of the computer model for mechanism

( b ) provides a rela t i onship between the maximum
difference in water p r e s sure-level below and above the
block work �� and the vert ical water level vari ation
H . An indicat ive example of thi s is given in Fig 3 1 .
It can be seen f r om this f igure that a p ermeable
revetment (k ' i s larg e ) and a dense filter ( k is
small ) have a benefi cial inf luence on the s tabi li t y
( �� is small ) . Al s o , a relatively thin fil ter laye r
(b is small ) produces less high pres sures under the
blocks . Corre sponding conclusions are valid f or the
s imultaneous occurrence of mechanisms ( b ) and ( c ) .
Thes e quali tat ive re sul ts corres pond wi th the r esul t s
o f the tes ts carried out b y the Delf t Hydraul ic
Labo ratory .

The various mathemati cal models which have been

developed only offer application on a limi ted s cale
f or the calculation o f the weight o f a r eve tment . For
the time being one has to use mainly the results
obtained f r om laboratory t e s t s .

65
 phreatic line _in filter

line in f i l t er

closed
(impermeab le)
()

Pressu re difference:
pressu re u nder bl ocks­
pressu re below blocks

' Ratio of permeabilities

( i n this exa mp le) :
closed fi lter=revetment= 1 : 0.04 1 66

(impermeable)

()

Fig . 30. Resu lts of a computer analysis for the mechanisms b and c at the instant when the wave
breaks.
 0.5

O,l. \
�/:t: 0.3 \ !
\[\ I I
I
�
0.2 I I

""- . . ..
"-
0,1

r--- -
I I
0 f. 6 8 ' 10 12 14 16 18
H
-).-

Fig. 3 1 . Maximum d i ffe rence b etwee n the water head b e low and ab ove the revetment 11 ifJ as a
function of the s e epage length ..1..
 Through the appli cation of the combined research dat a
referred t o in the l i t e ra ture , an at tempt can be mad e
to arrange an empirical f ormula . This can be achieved
by us ing a much s implified equi librium examina tion t o
de rive a fo rmula and then check the coeffi cients
employed agains t the t e s t-resul t s .

An example of this is given in F ig 3 2 , where the wave

breaking parame t e r � ( s ee als o para 1 1 . 3 ) is set out
as a funct i on of parame ter H s / &f . The equi lib rium
considera t i on at right-angles to the s lope g ives the
f o rmula :
Hs cos a:
M �
whe r e : Hs s igni f i cant wave height
a: s lope angle o f revetment
� = relative d ens i ty of a b lock

Pb volumet ri c mass of the b lo ck

Pw = volumetric mas s of wate r
d thicknes s o f the block
wave breaking parame t er tan a:
I;
IHS
��
wave length in deep wat e r ; based on the
s igni f icant wave period
c = coefficient t o b e checked against t e s t
resul t s

With the as sumption that cos a: is approximately equal

to one ( co s a: � 1 ) , Fig 32 represents a s omewhat ' s afe '
app roach wi th c = 0 . 2 5 . The influence o f the wave
breaking parame ter I; on the s tabi lity of the placed
blocks is clearly ind i cat e d .

Apart f rom the thickne s s d of the reve tment , the

r elative d ens ity � of the blocks is also of great
impo rtance f o r the s tabi lity . Through a relatively
limi ted increase o f the v olumetric mas s Pb• the
unde r-water weight of the b locks increas es markedly .

The " black-box" approximation p r es ented here is fairly

" rough" only; thus f o r examp l e the effect of the
pe rmeab ility ratio of reve tment to filter is no t
accounted for , nor are the surf ace block dimens ions o r
the thi cknes s o f the filter .

1 3 . 2 . 2 Impermeable
unde r layer
From tes ts carried out by the Delf t Hydraulic
Laboratory for the des i gn o f the O e s t e rdam, in the
" d elta" flume , it appeared that a reve tment o f blo cks
placed on a clay base layer p o s s e s ses greater
s tabi lity than i s the cas e for block revetments on
p ermeable base s o i l s . The explanation is that the

66
 I.
8
0 Kostense ( 1980 ) 1 : 3

• ( 1980 l
\
Kostense 1 : 5

7 6 Oesterdam Nt = 2 1 : /,

\ II
I.
:

I
A. Oes terdam N1 = 10 1 [,

11 G i d sproeven N 1 = 2 1 : 3
I
5

\
5 \ �
I
A
II
i

\ A

I I
��
1 ·
' ·�
�I1 I
I I
I

· t�
I
II
2
•
0
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
I

I I i
0 2 3 [, 5

; = tan a

. lAf'

Fig. 3 2 . Wave b reaking parameter � a s a fun ction of t h e p arameter H,l !!.d for irregular waves and
a p e rm e a b le foundation layer.
 p re s s ure build-up unde r the reve tment i s made mor e
d i f f i cult b y the impermeable cha racter of the clay .
As soon as a block is lif ted slightly by upl i f t
p r e s sure , wa ter will flow i n under the b lo ck to f i l l
the hollow spac e ; this is als o l e s s easy wi th a clay
base than wi th a g ranular f i l ter underlayer .

Howeve r , in order to benefit on a permanent basis from

the increased s tabil i t y , the demand on the clay
quality needs to be high ( s ee Chapter 5 ) . The
presence of sand-lens e s is es pecially detrimental ,
whil s t appl i cation in the tidal z one can b e
pro blema t ical .

Little is known so far about the failure mechanism .

13 .3 Interlocked or
f r i c t i on
b l ock- revetments
( tightly- f i t t ing
b l o ck s )
Equilibrium cons iderations concerning upl i f t are here
not valid f or one block , but for a number o f blocks .
Computat ions for the s tability of a slope as a whole
are made more d i f f i cult b y : -

the unknown factor o f the size o f the area which

wil l act more or le s s as a " s lab " ;

lack of knowledge on the degree o f pressure

between the blocks ( p re-s tr e s sing ) ;

lack of informat i on on the deformation

characteri s tics o f the " s lab " ;

the ind i s t inct nature o f the failure mechani sm .

Specially f o r the p lacing of revetments which pos s e s s

a reliable interlock and hence high s tability under
wave attack, the s t reng th o f the o ther parts o f the
cons truction should no t be negl ected . I t is , for
exampl e , possible that the permi s s ible wave s for the
b lock revetment would develop large pres sure
variations in the under lying fil ter . This could caus e
washing out of ma t erial , mi gration from the filte r
parallel to the slope and penetration of the sand f r om
the body of the bank could occur , which in the long
term could cause large s e tt lement in or undermining o f
the revetment .

67
13 . 4 Summary of the
res earch in the
" d e l ta-f lume " *
V arious large-s cale experiment s (blo cks to s cale 1 : 2 )
were carried out in the del t a-f lume of the Delft
Hydraulics Laboratory ( a t De Voors t ) . Figur e s 3 3 and
34 give a summary f o r regular waves and irregular
waves respectively . Trans lat ing the resul t s of the
tests with regular waves to those with irregular waves
is no t yet po s s ible .

The f igures p r e s ent the ( d imens ionles s ) wave height ,

which p roduces the damage , plo tted as a func t ion o f
the wave b reaking parameter � ( corresponding t o
Fig 3 2 ) . The revetment type and thickne s s , the wave
period and the s lope angle are given in the f igure .
F rom the f igures i t can be f ound that : -

Variation o f the p e rmeability o f loose blocks o n a

f i l t e r had l i t t l e e f f ect on the s tabilit y . The
revetment was , the re fo r e , apparently suf f icientl y
permeable i n all cases inves tigated ( s ee Fig 3 4 ) .

Blocks on good clay have g reater s tabili t y , which

needs the addi tional comment that in short­
duration t e s t s the s tability increased even mor e :

Hs/ ld = 6 . 9 ( Fig 3 4 )

Blocks wi th a well-def ined interlock p o s s e s s a very

large s tability ( s ee Fig 3 3 and 3 4 ) . The behavi our
o f the underlying f il t er can, however , be a
limi ting factor .

Wi th the Armo rflex and Basalton blocks the s tabili ty

is appreciably increased by f il ling the spaces be tween
the blocks wi th g ranular material , which increas e s
f r i ctional force s . I t i s not even poss ible to give
the exact f ai lure limit as the Delta f lume i s
incapable of producing suf fi cient force to make the
model b lo ck-s lope f ail for this type o f r eve tment .

This r e s earch also showed that , when the spaces

between the blocks are filled wi th granular material ,
the exact f orm or shape of the blocks i s not of great
impor t ance . F o r all the block shapes inve s t igated ,
the f ai lure limi t proved to be b eyond the wave f lume
capaci ty , due to the fill ing of spaces wi th granular
mate rial .

* T ranslator ' s not e : The Delta-f lume , s ee plat e , i s a

very large wave f lume bui l t specially for research
work conne c ted wi th the Delta P ro j e c t .

68
 7
.-------r-----,---.:
-f
s=p "'
a c=e=-
,
s filled wit h
granular m a t eria l -
10 H > 75
l - .
j .
l

II
t:.d

'
= .
6

I1
I i
5
! ,
I

spaces filled with--i

--
1----+------t

I I 1 granular m a terial
3 !::( . r ' tJ.d > 1 5 flow
H
c a p acity of d elta flume too small to test all
:x:j�
2 11
thicknesses and variations in volumetric m a s s
f. 1---- ---+---,.---+- ----.---I ---<
I. .A I
'
5I
I

3 r-------+--------�6�-
-
-----+-----�

I I
7 11 !

l
s•
! i
2 r---------�------r------�----�I

d el t a flume I 10 .. .
9 11

1 1 ,.
l
�
/�
�
/
�
s p illin g collaps i n Q . s urging (Swell)

0 1 � 3 1.
� = ta n a ta n a

-v¥$ Y-F
=

ARMO RFLEX � tE G 25 d=
• 0 25
i 1 0 11
o.33 • o.Jo ,
10 d: 0.115 : :i.,A
_
�J . ,· 0 7 11 z1e z·e
!on �= 1 ! 1 · '
T: L s n o m f r ll
I
I T: 3 s
t o n ::: = 1 i i.
. T= 6 s : T= S s
ITl
I BA
o 25 • 0. 2 5
[0 d= O •s I ;,
I
2 11 . 5 11 z•e � z•e .
• •

l BASALT?N :l �. 41
ton ° = 113

1 --
T= 3 s T= 6 s T= 6 s T= Ss i

-
-- - -------
---r- s o p e a n gl

B .:...:fi=ll'--...Lj ��---------- �
d pnsmo s
-------
-
1 . _

36 J ton a = 1 n . 6 11 z ,e : 9 11 z ,e : _ bna 1
T= I. '- s T= r= 5_:__________ _ ·. · ·-
. -- - -1 - - ,
no in

B a s alton= c o n crete with b a s a lt _a g g r e g a t e

Fig. 3 3 . Stab ility values of vanous block revetments o n a filter b ase, fo r regu lar waves.
 I
7
i' s p a c e s
I - 'r l-i
s
filled with
g r a n u l a r m a t erial
> 7 .5 (cap aci ty- o f d elta flume t oo small)
I
:. d
6
81 i
,I
C•l 0 I
1 spe ctra (narro w - b a n d e d )
s p a c e s fil l e d with
,granular m a t erial
) A - j on swap
5 c a ll. · Hs ,. l c a p acrt y o f d elta
10 8 - p 1erson
t:.d
flume too small to moskov i c s z
i

I
t e s t a l l thicknesses I
C - mcrro!legai
'
and v ariation s in I Vesrerdom)

�
I.
v o l u m etric: m ass

I
2
.. 3
c .,
' eS
a !;
3
82• rr
Al

t delta flume

I 2
I

'

� ��
..-- -

- s p i l�in g . plunging ---surgin g

: I

0 2 3
; tan a :: tan a s l o p e shape ( O e s t-e r d a m ) · , .

!NAP i s dutch e q uiv a l e n tl

=
• C - spec trum · 5. 6 0 m

Lo f N e w l y n D a t u m
� � J
TT s s · '- 00 "'

TO
NAP • 3.50m
g Tt
E8 E8 E8
"- tor. t: • l/4
_j

I
0.2 5 · 0.25 • 0.25· 0 .2 5 • 0.25• 0.25
• •
AI lon et : l / 3 on day C 7 Zl" A 1

�FLEXf
Cl C l.

� GJJ
d= 0, 1 5 Ts = 3 s d= 0 .10 JS = '- s d=0.15 Ts = '- s
@:@) 0.2 5 • 0 25 1

I
5 · 0.25 BASALTON
•
l£.l.£J
0 ll. pnsma s

no mfitt l
��
0.30 �
0 •y, L. o/.
J ton CL = 1 1 3
ld
81 c2 ;5 C8

m EB
d: 0.10 JS = 3.5s d: 0 , 1 0 JS = 3 5 s
- 0•1 1 5
d- • -3
Js- ,75s tantr- Ts = 6 s
n o infi!!
� . 0.2 5 · 0.25 • 0.25· 0.25

1
I CJ
•· · Se e A1
62 I C5
d= 0.10 r.= 3 s:1__ d: 0.10 JS = 3 S s

Fig. 34. Stability values o f various block revetments o n a filter base, for irregular waves (exce pt
test C l , blocks placed on clay). ' -
Model i nvestigation i nto the stabil ity of dyke revetment of stone pitchi n g
i n t h e delta f l u m e o f t h e Laboratory o f F l u i d Mechanics a t De Voorst,
( N etherlands} . The photograph shows a breaker just about to stri ke the
slope.
 Al though the s tabili ty o f the blocks in the graphs
have been g iven as a func tion o f two , dimens ionl es s ,
parameters , it is neverthele s s no t permi s s ible to
extrapo late the r e sul ts s hown , to areas which a r e
clearly beyond the measured values presented in the
f igures , such a s for example a different s lope angle .

The cause f o r this is that the parame ters H/ � and �

only very part ially represent the fai lure mechani sm .
S ome caution in the appli cation of the r e sults of the
D e l ta flume tes ts is therefore e s s ential .

For Dutch es tuaries (wi thout taking swel l into

account ) , the wave s teepne s s (Hs /L0 ) i s of ten found t o
vary b e tween 0 . 0 3 5 and 0 . 0 6 5 . \vhen a n average value
o f 0 . 0 5 i s s elect ed for Hs /L 0 , then the � values are
sharply limited :

tan a 1 /3 � � = 1.5
tan a
�
.. + � = 1.1
tan a = 1/5 + � = 0 .9
tan a 1/6 + � = 0 . 75

For thes e � values Fig 3 4 shows for loose blocks on a

f i l t e r layer no lower value than 3 f or H/ � . This may
the r e f o re be t aken as a lower limi t .

For loose block s on clay a minimum value o f 5 can b e

ado p ted f o r H/ � , p rovided that the clay criteria
des cribed in Chap t e r 5 have been satisf ied .

With systems having a good and t rus tworthy interl o ck ,

higher ( H/ � ) values have been f ound . The performance
o f the und e rlayer can , however , form a limi t ing
f ac to r .

14 SAFETY
CONSIDERATIONS

14 . 1 General
Loads and s t rength parame t er s can i n general not be
predic ted in advance as t o the precise values they
wi ll have in a s tructure . The loads and the s treng th
of a s t ruc ture are evid ently in practice sub j ect to
vari ations , so that these quali ties will have to be
taken as s t ochas tic value s .

A s to chas tic quantity i s def ined as one which is no t

charac t e r i s ed by a s ingle value , but is des cribed in
terms of s t atis ti cal parame ters .

The o ppo s i te o f a s t o chas tic quant i ty is the

d e t ermini s tic quan t i t y , o f which the value is known

69
 � � - - - �---� - ---- ----�
--- -�- ---�-�---

with certainty . In practice det ermini s t i c quantities

f or loads and s t reng ths do not o ccur .

Some times the s pread of values which occurs i s ,

howeve r , so small that it is cons ide red to be
j us t ifiable to take the quanti ty concerned as a
d e te rmini s tic one . Like the load s and s tr engths , the
dimensi ons of s t ruc tures are also s t o chas t i c .

Practice shows that mo s t o f the f ailure cases on

record are no t caused by stochas tic variati ons in
s treng th and / or loading , but by cons tructi onal
defici encies and human error s . In thi s there is the
chance of calculation errors in the s treng th
computation, or no t recognis ing a maj or failure
mechanism.

Many f ailures o c cur during construction , whil s t e rr o r s

during exe cuti on in general f o rm a s ourc e f or po s s ib l e
cons t ruction f ai lures . Neglect o f the neces sary
ins p ection and maint enance can al s o have s er i ous
c ons equences .

The f o llowing d i s cussion is only intended to highlight

the philo s ophy and p o s s ibilities of some f ai rl y
recently developed method s , with a f inal word about
the level s o f saf ety to b e ado p t ed .

14 . 2 Des cription o f
probabilis tic
methods
If the chance-dis tribution of load and s treng th i s
known , then t he chance o f f ai lur e , as contributed b y
exceeding the s t rength can be expressed as :

Z = R - S

where : Z = the reliab i l i ty function

R s trength o f the s truc ture ( r e s i s tance )
S the load on the s t ructure

In order t o achieve a purpose designed s t ruc ture the

value o f Z should be greater than z ero ; no failure
would o ccur in that case . ;

S t reng th R and load S will in their turn in general b e

funct ions o f o t her variable s . The rel iability
function can be writ ten in the form:

Z = R(X l , • • • • , X k ) - S ( X k+ l • • • • • , Xn )

It is usual to denote the va riables x 1 , ,x f r om • • • •

n
the reliability function as " bas e-variable s " .

70
It should be not ed that the reliability func tion Z i s
in no way t o b e viewed a s a f ormula ; Z may also come
out o f a complex mat hematical mode l , eg from a
computer program .

With bank r evetments it is not known in advance wha t

the dominat ing situa t i on wil l be , i e whether i t wi l l
be water level , wave height , wave s te epne s s , et c . If
i t i s viewed from the f ailure chance of the revetment ,
then it is o f t en not the waves o ccurring during the
mo s t extreme wat e r level s ( super s torm ) whi ch
determine the d e sign cri teria , but the waves at a
lower leve l . Thi s is because , although the wave
attack at lower l evels is less heavy , the chance o f a
lower l evel s t o rm is greater than f o r an ext reme level
st orm . This aspect wi ll only be shown in its t rue
cont ext wi th the aid of a probabili s tic calculation ,
in which load and s tr ength are t reated as
insepara ble .

The Delta commi s s i on ( Ref 2 9 ) in their d es ign approach

for sea and es tuary embankments also introduced a
s t o chastic e l ement , but they returne d , on practical
considera t i ons , to limi ting this to indicating only
the loading exceedance chance . P rimary s ea-d ef ence s
have t o b e des igned , according t o the Delta
commis s ion, in such a way that they can ful l y
wi ths t and a s torm flood with a given ( s e l e c t ed )
exceedance chance . In prac t i ce the s e a-wall wil l
o f ten b e des igned such that , apart from hidden safe t y
facto r s , the average s trength j u s t equals the design
load . This means , however , that there is a 5 0 % chance
that the embankment fails during the advent o f a
" de s ign " s torm floo d , which does no t accord wit h the
r equi rement s of the Delta commi s s i on .

Fig 3 5 shows s chema t i cally the me thod employed in the

current (Du tch ) code o f practice f o r concre t e , in
which probabi l i ty d i s tributi on is s tudied in order t o
look a t the likely s trength distribution . With the
aid o f a central s a f e ty-coef f i ci ent suf f i cient
d i s t ance i s maintained be tween the " chance-d ens i t i e s "
of loads S and s trength R .

The core o f the s a f ety cons iderations i s f o rmed b y the

s o-called probabi l i s t i c calculations . Gene rally
speaking it means that the chances of failure are
determined on the bas i s o f the uncertaint ies in the
loads imposed and in the s t ruc tural s treng ths .

A probab i l i s tic calculation in which the s e

,
unce rtaint ies are included i n a purely formal manne r ,
wi ll s o on l ead to complicated or insoluble
mathema t ical formulations for the chance of failure .
Various simplificati ons have , theref o re , been
gradually int roduced ; the s e simp li f i cations refer to
the way in which the uncer tainties a re incorporated .

71
To arrange the var i ous poss ible procedures in a
certain order , some f our levels of calculation have
been dis t inguis hed , which vary from fully
de te rmini s tic to completely probabili s t i c . Thes e
levels are : -

Level 0 : A determini s tic calculat ion. B o th

load and s trength are given def ined
f ixed values and the mathematical
model is regarded as fact . By means
of one general saf ety coefficient all
uncert aint ies are accounted for .

Level I : A s emi-probabilis tic calculation .

The load s and s trengths are based on
characteris tic value s . By means o f
partial saf ety coe f f icients , i e
coeffici ents which refer t o s epara t e
quantities , the remainder o f the
unce rtainties are accounted f o r .

Level I I : A probabi l i s t i c calculation , in whi ch

well-d e f ined s imp l i f i cations have
been introduced in the a s s imilation
o f stochas t i c quanti ties ; s everal
methods are avai lable for thi s .

Level Ill : A comp l etely probabi l i s t i c

calculation . T h e calculation is
based to tally on the theory o f
s t ochas tics .

The calculati ons on level s 0 and I are not really

p robabi lis tic , because the resul t of the calculations
does not give a f ailure chance . The values o f the
s af ety coeff icients can , however , for the ' s tand ar d '
problems b e derived with a calculation on levels I I o r
Ill . Imp licit with that can be a calculat i on on level
0 and I wi th refe rence to a particular f ai lure
chance .

The cons iderations here ( in this report ) wil l , becau s e

o f the practical poss ibili t i e s , b e limi t ed t o
probabi l i s t i c calculati ons o n level II .

The simp l i f i cations which are introduced in level I I

calculat ions are primarily aimed a t reducing a compl ex
reliabi l i ty func tion to a linear function .
S ub s equent ly , the dis tribution of the re liability
function is approximated by replacing it wi th a normal
d i s tribution, of which the mean and the s tandard
deviation are derived from the corresp onding
p arameters of the base-variables . The introduc tion o f
the s imp lifications in- the reliabi lity function can be
done in various way s ; two main me thods are employed in
practi c e :

72
 load S strength · _ R

-
-=
Q:: "
-

l
saf ety co effici e n t Y

s, r

Fig. 3 5. Design of a structure in accordance w i th the Code of Practice for Concrete VB 1 974/
1 984 (level I).
 the "mean value" approach;
the " advanc ed " approach;

"Mean Value " App roximation

In this me tho d , the reliability function Z , for the

mean of the various base variable s , is developed in a
mathematical ( Taylo r ) s e ries which is t erminated af t e r
the linear terms .

Linearisation in the mean , signifies in general that

it is linear i s ed in a point which does no t lie on the
failure limit Z = 0 . This method is also not
ins ens i t ive to the manner in which the reliability
funct ion is f o rmulated . However , on the o ther hand i t
can b e said that the "mean value " calculation is
relatively simple and can even in many cases b e
carried out completely by hand .

More complex i t erative calculati ons are required t o

f ind a b e t ter design " po int" eg the following
" advanced " approximatio n .

" Advanced" App roximation

In order t o over come the obj ections agains t the "mean

value" approximation , impr oved reli abi l i ty analy s e s
have b een worked out at Level II . The improvement i n
the " advanced " approximation concerns the choice o f
the des i gn " cond i t i on" .

Linearisation no longer occurs in the ' mean ' bu t

ins tead in a p oint on the fai lure boundary . On the
failure boundary the des ign conditi on is in addi tion
chos en in such a way that the probability of
o ccurrence o f that value o f Z is as large as p o s s i b l e .
Where the bas e variables deviate from the normal
d i s tribut ion, care is t aken t o ensure that the
replacement normal dis t ribut i on has the same
chance-density and exceedance chance . The definitive
des ign-point i s det ermined by means of an i terative
method . One cons e quence of the iterative process i s
that the calculation can in general no longe r be
carried out by hand .

14.3 Load and

s tr eng th
For the inf orma t ion of the reliability functio n Z , it
is ne cess ary t o know the probabi lity di s t ributi on
func ti ons and mutual relat ionships of the
bas e-variables . In this cont ext the f o llowing point s
ari s e : -

(a) the probability dis tributions o f the high

\vater level ;

' 73
(b) the relation be tween wave-height and high
water level;

(c) the probabil i ty d i s t ribution o f the

wave-s teepnes s ;

(d) the wave-breaking crit erion f o r

wave-breaking o n the foreshor e ;

(e) the model for describing the s t ability of a

placed revetment ;

(f) the probability d i s t r ibution o f the various

parame ters which determine the s trength o f
the revetment , f or example the slope angle ,
the block-thicknes s and the
clamping-f riction be tween the blocks .

In the CUR-VB / COW report , "Background to the guide f o r

concrete block revetment o n banks " , ( Ref 3 2 ) t h e lead
was given f or a mathematical model , in which the above
point s ( a ) to ( f ) have been incorporated . Wi th the
aid o f a numbe r of computed exampl e s ( Fig 3 6 ) the
p o s s ibilities for a probab i l i s t i c approach have been
i llus t rated .

In a probabilis tic calculation the f ai lure chance i s

calculated a s well as the des ign-cond i tion . The
design condition comprises the o p timum combination o f
base-variables t o make the chance that Z will b e less
than zero as large as pos sible , in o ther words the
f ai lure chance is greate s t , for examp le in relation to
the wor s t water level f o r f ailure . This means that
the reve tment is safer for other water levels .

Inf o rmati on is also obtained on the contribution o f

every bas e-variable i n the variation o f the
reliabil i ty funct i on z . In this way it is p o s s ible t o
e s tima t e how s ens i t ive the exac t values f o r the
probability calculation o f the variable concerned a r e
o n the end-resul t . T h e introduc tion o f a
wave-breaking criteri on enables the quant ification o f
the f avourable influence the breaking o f waves on a
high for eshore has on the s tabili ty .

Fig 3 6 illus trates some re sul ts of computer

calcula tions using the " advanced" approxima t i on ,
d erived from the aforementioned report o f Ref 3 2 . The
o rdinate of the graph presents the failure chance ( or
probability) and the ab scissa ind i cates the wa ter
l evel at which failure probabi lity is grea t es t . The
lines on the graph were derived by varying the
th icknes s of the reve tment and the depth o f the
f o reshore .

74
 The f igure shows the inf luence o f the breaking wave on
a high-level f oreshore , on the lo cation of damage and
the safety agains t failur e . The boundary be tween
breaking waves and waves not b reaking on a foreshore
i s inf luenced by the wat er leve l and the wave heigh t .
A particular relationship exi s t s b e tween water l evel
and wave heigh t : a greater wave height i s relat e d to
higher water leve l s . Thes e cons iderations lead t o the
conclu s i on (as shown in Fig 3 6 ) that one can only
indi cate areas where waves break and where no wav e s
break ; t h e exact limi t cannot be shown .

1 4 .4 S af e ty level
In order to include the revetment weight in the
probabi l i s t i c calculation method , the acceptable
f ai lure chance has t o be es t abli shed . B etween the
" daily p ra c ti ce " in the s ea-wall con s t ruction indus t r y
and t h e des ign-philos ophy laid down in the Delta
report there i s s ometimes a d i s cr epancy wi th regard t o
the revetment s . The practical method des igns
sometimes on the basis o f experienc e , ie under a ctual
u s age cond i t i on s . The Delta report in contras t ,
s tarts out f r om a d e sign s t orm whi ch lies outs ide the
area o f experi ence . There i s a f ai r ly wide gap
b etween the two metho d s .

At lower leve l s in practice one f inds occasi onal cas e s

o f d amage , say a failure chance i n the order o f
l o- 2 . I f this relatively large f ai lure chance i s
valid f o r the whol e slope , i t would mean that the
revetment needs t o be carried up the s lope t o a much
lowe r level than is usual at pres ent , becaus e the
a s s o c iated chance o f a water level occurring a t h i ghe r
leve l s i s smaller than l o- 2 .

The Delta commis si on has , however , given a d e s i g n

wat er level wit h a n exceedance chance o f lo- 4 f o r the
calculat i ons o f the s ea-wall top level . The s ea-wall
has to maintain a complete defence system up to that
leve l .

B e tween the uplift of a block at this high level and

the f ailure o f the s ea-wall , there remains the
mechanism of progres s i on of e r o s i on o f the
intermediate and unde r-layers and the body o f the
s ea-wall i ts elf . It is not known how much add i t ional
s af e ty this means .

The s tarting po int has to be that the reve tment wi th a

f ailure chance of lQ- 4 s till retains a certain reserve
o f s t reng th . The accepted t otal f ailure chance at the
super-s torm leve l , according to the Delta report wi l l
then lie in the o r d e r of s omething less than l0- 4 •

As an illus tration , Fig 37 shows the course of the

water levels of two s t orms , I and I I ; pha s e

75
 unbro k e n w a v e s breaking w a v e s
...

10 -8
I
:: - 1 m = foreshore depth
,o -7

I b lock thickness
1o - 6
0
V
I
� 10 5 I
0... -
QJ
'-
3
ltl 10 - L.
....
....
0

10 - 3
j0 . 25
QJ
0\
c:

.0.2,l
ltl
.s::.

1{) .., 2
w

---r----+--:---t--j

I 10 - 1
I I

::---t__..0! .1S-+·--+---+-
I
i
--t-----1

!
-1 NAP +1 ... 3

w a ter l e v e l r ela tiv e to NAP (m l

Fig. 3 6 . Examp le o f the results o f a p robab ilistic calculation.

 - - - - .:ton.� I .magnitude of 'Wave att<tcl<'
-- �rs torm II -..o...-.
I I

tide curve

Efc

_____, - -
-..-J.,

......, _
, ____,___.

-.
P("HW>ll P!HHW >l!l
:: �c -
2

Fig. 3 7 . Water levels and wave attack.

d i f f e rences be tween tide and wind s e t-up have no t been
t aken into account . S torm II las ts longer , reaches a
higher water level and produce s at its maximum greater
waves than s t o rm I .

It is as sumed that up to p eak I the 2 s torms ar e

ident i cal . S t orm I has of cour s e a greater
probabi l i ty of o ccurrence than s t orm II . Becau s e
s t o rm I dimini shes i n strength af ter peak I , and the
s ea-wall at this ( comparatively) low level through i t s
great thickness p o s s e s s es a large res idual saf e ty
margin , it i s p erhaps acceptable to have a relatively
great chance o f failure o f the reve tment . Af ter the
s t orm the damaged part of the revetment and bank-body
can be repaired .

If this argument i s pursued , higher f ailure

p robabilities would b e acceptable for the lower
level s . This argument is , however , incorre c t .

�nen s t orm II o ccurs ther e would be no time availabl e

t o repai r the damage caus ed by peak I . The result i s
that this s torm woul d , s o t o s p eak, " roll-up " the
r eve tment from the b o t t om upward s , which would create
the danger tha t , through rapid eros i on the revetment
higher up on the slope would be undermined . This i s
n o t acceptable .

The damage s o c curring at the lower levels would resul t

in damage higher up , des pite the constructional safety
o f the higher level revetment . The s treng th o f the
chain is in its weake s t link .

It is therefore concluded that at all levels the s am e

failure p robab i l i t y in the order of lQ- 4 should b e
adop t e d . In cons equence in Ho lland there should b e
rarely if ever any s e ri ou s damage observed t o
revetment and unde r laye r .

76
 LITERATUURLIJST

Algemene d i j kbouw ( General bank cons truction)

1. KLEY , J VAN DER en H J Z U IDWEG , P o lders en d i j ken. Agon E l s evier ,

Ams terdam/ B russel 1 9 6 9 . ( Polders and banks ) .

2. AGEMA, J F , Collegedictaat Waterkeringen , f 3 / f 1 1 , Af d eling der C iviele

Te chniek , Techni s che Hog e s chool Delf t , 1 9 8 2 . ( C o llege Cours e Notes on
embankme nt s ) .

3. D i e Kli s t e . Archiv flir F or s chung und Technik an der Nord-und O s t s ee ,

Hef t 3 6 , 19 8 1 . He rausg eber : Kurat orium flir F o r s chung im
Klis t eningenieurswesen.

4. BEKKER , M E , J DE BOER en J DE JONG , Kus t-en oeverwerken . S tam

Te chnis che Boeken , 1 9 7 4 . ( C o a s t and bank work s ) .

Ges chiedeni s (His t o r i ca l )

5. COLIJN , P J , Z ee-en rivierwerken . N V U i tgeversmaat s chappi j , voorhe e n

V a n Mantgem & D e Does , 19 2 1 . ( S ea and riverworks )

6. MURALT R R L DE , D i jk-en oeverwerken van gewapend b e t on volgens h e t

" S ys t e em de Muralt " . Te chnische B o ekhande l en Drukkeri j J Waltman J r ,
D e l f t 1 9 13 . ( S eawalls and bank works in r e inforced concrete in the
"Muralt S y s t em" .

B e tont echnologie ( C oncrete Te chnolog y )

7. NEN 3 8 8 0 , Voorschrif ten B e t on V B 1 9 7 4 / 1 9 8 4 . Nederlands

N o rmali s at i e-ins tituut , De lf t 1 9 8 4 . ( Concrete S tandards ) .

8. NEN 7 0 2 4 , Glooi ingselementen van beton. Nederland s

No rmal isat ie-ins tituut , Delf t 1 9 7 2 . ( S t andard f o r concrete blocks f o r
s lope p r otection ) .

9. CUR-VB-rapport 2 2 , Weerbes tendigheid van beton. U i t gave

B e t onvereniging , Z oe t erme e r 1 9 6 1 . (Weather res i s tance of concre t e ) .

·,• !
10 . CUR-VE-rapport 6 4 , Vorstbes tandheid beton . Uit gave Eetonvereniging ,
Z oe t ermee r 1 9 7 4 . ( F r o s t r e s i s tance o f concrete ) .

11. CUR-VE-rap p o rt 9 0 , R eparaties van betoncons tructies , deel I : Vervangen

of reparere n van bes chad igde cons t ructies . Uitgave Eet onvereniging ,
Z oe t ermeer 1 9 7 7 . (Repair o f concrete cons t ruction s ) .

12 . CUR-VE-rapport 9 6 , E e t on en afvalwater . U i tgave E e t onvereniging ,

Z oe t ermee r 1 9 7 9 . ( C oncr e t e and sewage ) .

13 . CUR-VB-rapport 9 9 , E rosie van beton. U itgave E e tonvereniging ,

Z oe t ermee r 1 9 80 . (Eros ion of concret e ) .

14. CUR-VE-rappor t 1 0 0 , D uurzaamheid maritieme cons t ru cties . Uitgave

B e t onvereniging , Z oe termee r 1 9 8 1 . (Durability o f maritime
cons t ru ct i on ) .

Materiaaleigens chappen in verband met onderlagen (Ma te rials characteris t i c s

relat ing t o unde r layers )

15. Kus t-en oeverwerken , in p rakt i jk en theorie . Nederlandse vereniging

Kus t-en Oeverwerken, 1 9 7 9 . ( C o a s t and bank work s , in practice and
theory ) .

16. Kuns t s t o f f en en oeverbes chermin g . Uitgegeven onder auspic ien van d e

Nederlands e Vereniging Kus t-en Oeverwerken , S t am T e chnis che Boeken ,
1 97 5 . (Han-made mat erials and bank p r o t e ct i on ) .

17. Kuns t s t o f f i lters in kus t- en oeverwerken. Neder landse vereniging Kus t­

en Oeverwerken , 1983 . ( Ge o textile filters in coa s t and bank works ) .

18. GRAAUW, A F F DE e n M A KOENDERS , S tand van z aken bij het onderz oek
naar granulaire filters . Waterloopkundi g Laboratorium en Laborator ium

voor Grondmechanica , Nota S 4 6 9 , Delft 1 9 8 0 . ( S tate of the art in

r e s earch in granular filters ) .

19. LAAN , G J, De t oepas baarheid van mi jnsteen in de waterbouw .

WKE-R-7 8 1 5 6 , Ri jkswaters taa t Del tadiens t , werkgroep keuring bouws tof f e n
v o o r de waterbouw , 1 9 8 0 . (Applicability o f mine was te ( or shale) in
water cons truction ) .

t '
 20 . Interimrapport "Klei onder s teenz e t t ingen voor O e s t e rdam en
Phi lipsdam " . Ri jkswaters taat Del t adiens t , werkgroep klei , 1 9 8 4 . ( C lay
unde r s tone revetments for Oes terdam and Philipsdam .

Hydraulis che randvoorwaarden (Hydraulic boundary cond i t i ons )

21 . S hore p rotect ion manual . V olumes I , II and III , US Army Coastal

Engineering Research Cent e r , 19 7 7 .

22 . BATTJE S , J A , Golf oploop en golfove r s lag . T e chnis che Advies commi s s i e

v o o r de Waterkeringen , Den Haag 1 9 7 2 . (Wave run-up and ove rtopping ) .

23 . Over het berekenen van deltap r o f i elen voor d i jken langs d e

Wes t e rs cheld e . R i jkswate r s t aa t , Directie Z eeland , S tudiediens t
V l i s s ingen , 1 97 2 . (On the calculat i on of Delta S cheme p r o f iles f or
banks along the Wes t e r s cheld e ) .

24 . GROEN , P en R DORRESTEIN , Z eegolve n . S taatsuitgeveri j , Den Haag 1 9 7 6 .

( S ea waves ) .

S tabi l i t e i t gezette bekleding ( S tability o f p laced revetments )

25. T a ludbekleding van geze t t e s t e e n . Deel I t /m XV , M 1 9 7 5 /M 1 88 1 ,

Waterloopkundig Laboratorium en Laboratorium voor Gr ondmechanica , De l f t
1982/1984. ( S lope revetments o f p laced s t one ) .

26. S tabiliteit Armorflex-s t e enz e t ting onder golfaanva l . Vers lag

modelonderzoek , M 1 9 1 0 , Waterloopkundig Laboratorium en Laboratorium
voor Grondmechanic a , Delft 1 9 8 3 . ( S t ab i li ty of Armorf lex unde r wave
a t tack ) .

27 . B asalton , S tab iliteit onder golf aanva l . Vers lag modelonderzoek, 11

1 9 0 0 , Waterloopkundig Laboratorium en Laboratorium voor Gr ondmechani ca ,
D e lf t 1 9 8 3 . (Basalt on , S tability unde r wave attack ) .

28. Gobi-b1okken als taludbek1eding , M 1 1 8 4 , Waterloopkundig Laboratorium ,

D e l f t 19 7 3 . (Gobi-b locks as s lope revetments ) .

t ; ,. j

---- ---
-- . --�---�----- � - --
-------- - --------�

Veiligheid (S a f e t y )

29. Rapporten D el tacommi s s i e , D eel 1 t /m 6 . S taatsuitgeveri j , D en Haag

19 60 / 1 9 6 1 . (Delta Commiss ion Report s , Volumes 1 t o 6 ) .

30. VROUWENVELDER , A C W M en J K VRIJLING , C ollegedictaat P robabil i s t is c h

ontwerp e n , b3 . Afdeling d e r Civiele Techniek , Technische Hoges chool
D e lf t , 1 9 8 3 . ( College Course Notes on Probabilis tic D esign ) .

31. CUR-VE-rapport 10 9 , Veiligheid van b ouwcons tructies . Een

p robabi listis che benadering . Ui t gave Betonvereniging , Z o etermeer 1 9 8 2 .
( S a f e ty of cons t ructi ons , a p robabilistic approach ) .

Overige ( O ther sub j ec t s )

32. CUR-VE / COW-rappo r t , Achtergronden b i j de leidraad cementbet onnen

d i jkbekledingen. C entrum voor Onderz oek Waterkeringen, Den Haag 1 9 8 4 .
( Background t o the guide to c oncrete dyke revetment s ) .

33 . Leidraad voor de t o ep a s s ing van asfalt in de wat erbouw . T echni s ch e

Adviescommi s s ie voor de Wat erkeringen , S taatsuitgeveri j , D e n Haag
1984. ( Available in Engl ish trans lation as "The use of asphalt in
hydraulic engineering " , Report No 3 7 / 1 9 85 , Te chnical Advis ory Commi t t e e
on water defen ces , T h e Hague , Netherland s , 1 9 8 5 .

t '