MODIFIED HEEL PRESSURE FORMULA TO SIMULATE TILTING OF A COMPOSITE CAISSON BREAKWATER.

Susami West Breakwater, a composite caisson breakwater located in Japan, was damaged by high waves caused by typhoon Tokage on the 20th of October 2004. The failure mode was characterized by the sliding/tilting of the caissons and the removal of the concrete armoring units. The failure of these armor units is believed to increase the pressures exerted by the waves on the caisson, and thus exacerbate the expected deformations in the rubble mound foundation, a fact which has thus far been ignored in previous research. The present paper proposes a methodology to take into account the effect of these concrete armor units to estimate the deformations that took place in the rubble mound foundation. The methodology uses a modification of the method by Goda [1985] proposed by Esteban et al. [2009] that can approximate to the right order of magnitude the vertical deformations at the back of the caisson by using a Monte Carlo simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]