Safety of Marine Structures:from failure experience to the development of design standards for rubble mound breakwaters

Based on the large number of recent failures of major rubble mound breakwaters the paper discusses the experience gained so far and points out the weak spots in our present knowledge. On this base the difficulties in developing design standards are discussed and it is argued that the principles of a "future safe" design code for exposed marine structures like breakwaters should be different from the ones usually applied in modern design standards for conventional structures within civil engineering. Moreover, results from ongoing development of a design code for rubble mound breakwaters are presented.Based on the large number of recent failures of major rubble mound breakwatersthe paper discusses the experience gained so far and points out the weak spots inour present knowledge. On this base the difficulties in developing design standardsare discussed and it is argued that the principles of a "future safe" design codefor exposed marine structures like breakwaters should be different from the onesusually applied in modern design standards for conventional structures within civilengineering. Moreover, results from ongoing development of a design code forrubble mound breakwaters are presented