Failure Analysis of Caisson Breakwaters Armoured with Wave Dissipating Blocks

Recently, caisson sliding failures affected by large waves have occurred. The damage of the breakwaters in Susami port due to Typhoon Tokage on October 2004 is a typical sliding failure and the caissons were tilted down in the rear of rubble mound. The damage at Fushiki-Toyama port on February 2008 is also another typical sliding failure and concrete blocks were settled down. The present paper describes the factors of their caisson sliding failures affected by damage of armor concrete blocks. It concludes that the caisson sliding failure at Susami port was caused by insufficient weight of the caisson. Even if heavier concrete blocks are placed as armors, the caisson would be slid. The numerical simulation suggests that the caisson sliding failure at Fushiki-Toyama port was caused by the combination of three factors of large wave height, long wave period and duration time.