A METHOD FOR DESIGNING CAISSON BOTTOM SLABS CONSIDERING MOUND UNEVENNESS

Abstract

This study proposes a method for designing the bottom slabs of composite caisson breakwaters considering the unevenness of rubble mound surfaces. Based on the results of large-scale model tests, we developed a stochastic model to represent the distributions of reactions acting on the bottom slabs of caissons. We then conducted reliability analyses on the model to calculate the bending failure probabilities of the bottom slabs with respect to the mound unevenness. We also evaluated the partial factors to be used in designing the bottom slabs of caissons at various degrees of mound unevenness.