Development of a new armor unit against high waves

Coastal hazards such as high waves are expected to increase due to global climate change. Therefore, we investigated new armor unit structures for disaster prevention. Recently, a concrete caisson has been used in many breakwaters against high waves in South Korea, but the demand for concrete armor unit has increased due to the high cost and many installation requirements. Though many new armor units have been developed over the world since Tetrapod in 1950, few have been used due to lack of systematical development. The representative armor units in current use have many advantages, but they cannot be applied to waves higher than 8 m. One of the new armor units developed by the design guide based on recent trend and hydraulic model experiments were conducted. The new armor unit was developed as a single layer due to cost effectiveness. However, the thickness is close to 1.5 times by overlapping the alphabet A and V. It showed higher overtopping compared to a double layer because of the thickness and the high packing density. It has a high interlocking vertically but low horizontally. It shows good stability at 9 m in model testing.