Hydraulic stability of cube-armored mound breakwaters in depth-limited breaking wave conditions

Armor erosion due to wave attack has been studied intensively since it is considered the main failure mode of mound breakwaters. Cube-armored mound breakwaters in depth-limited breaking wave conditions are common in practice but have received limited attention in the literature. In this study, 2D physical tests were performed on non-overtopped double-layer randomly-placed cube-armored mound breakwater models with armor slope cotα = 1.5 and bottom slope m = 2% in breaking wave conditions. Using the experimental results, a new hydraulic stability formula was derived with a coefficient of determination R2 = 0.85 based on a power relationship between the armor damage and the stability number and the dimensionless water depth. A lower hydraulic stability was found for the front slope of non-overtopped cube-armored structures in breaking wave conditions when compared to formulas given in the literature.