APPROACH TO REDUCING SHORE EROSION BASED ON APPLICATION OF COMPOSITE PILE BREAKWATER “COMB”

Abstract

The article stresses actual importance of protection against coastal erosion almost all over the world, gives short overview of hydraulic structures traditionally used to combat erosion. The problems arising during the operation of such hydraulic structures, the restrictions imposed on them in various countries, are noted, which raises the question of the need to search for new solutions based on modern materials that surpass traditional analogues in strength and durability and create opportunities for new design solutions. One of such solutions is the modular pile breakwater “Comb” in the cover of composite materials, which protects the concrete body of the breakwater from the aggressive marine environment and destructive wave impact. “Comb” provides fast and convenient installation technology, which is several times faster than the speed of construction of traditional breakwaters and allows creating from modules any configuration that is optimal for solving problems of counteracting coastal erosion in a particular area. The design was investigated during several cycles of flume tests in one of the leading Russian specialized laboratories; results were obtained confirming the high efficiency of the Comb structure. This allowed the transition to full-scale field tests of the breakwater