BREAKWATER FOR A NEW MARINA

TUTORED WORK

Adrià Prades Martinell

Pau Puntí Espinet

Carles Ricart Roldós

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 INDEX

- Annex I → Location

- Annex II → Wave climate

- Annex III → Mean Water Level oscillations

- Annex IV → Wave Propagation

- Annex V → Cross-section definition and stability

- Annex VI → Coastal impacts

- Annex VII → Budget

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ANNEX I: LOCATION

The main objective of this project is to create a new maritime structure, specifically a
breakwater for a new marina. This structure will be placed in the Vallcarca cave, situated in
the region of El Garraf, in the province of Barcelona, with a latitude of 41.236794 and a
longitude of 1.863380.

As shown in the image, in this area a port was created, the port of Vallcarca, joining a list of
several other important harbors of this region like the Port de Vilanova, Port del Garraf, and
the Port d’Aiguadolç. This port in particular was created to help the cement factory placed just
outside this bay.

The harbor is connected by two highways, C-32, situated north of the factory, and C-31, which
follows the Catalan coast, and it is surrounded by the Natural Park of El Garraf, an
environmentally protected space of over 12.000 hectares with almost all of the soil there made
of calcareous rock, the main reason why the factory was constructed.

Nowadays, this cave not only is important to the cement factory, but it has become a very
touristic spot, thanks to the beach and the bar/disco placed in it.

We have been able to obtain the bathymetry of this location, a key aspect in the calculations
of the project because they depend on the depth where our structure is situated.

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As we can see in the image above, the depth of our structure will be around 6 meters
approximately.

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ANNEX II: WAVE CLIMATE

To effectively manage, preserve and to dimension any kind of coastal structure, it is crucial to
study extreme climate such as storms in the area.

As we know, waves play a significant role towards maintaining the structural integrity of the
infrastructures, the safety to the employees on the marina and it’s operational efficiency
making it essential to analyze historical data of the place in where we are working.

In Catalunya, we have the luck that all this information is open and we can subtract it from
"Puertos del Estado."
As we said, to analyze historical data with in order to have an idea referent to coastal
structures, we have to take into account extreme climate. In other words, what we call storms.

During storms, we will find the bigger waves which will be the ones that we will use as
reference as the can be a threat.

But first of all we have to be able to determine when a storms happen and we will do it using
a critical wave height that when this one is exceeded we will know that we are on a storm.

We have set this critical wave height as 2.5m. Setting this critical height, we can know when
this limit is overcomed but this can happen several times on a same storm but we do not want
ton classify it as a different storm.

To prevent that and to set an end for the storm, we have chosen 48h to be the time that
conform a storm, as we said in class. After that, if the wave height it is over 2.5m, we will
consider that it is another storm.

To make the analysis as accurate as possible, we have taken all the data from 1960 to 2024
taking a total of 64 years of data. In this case, we have focused on the data that is considered
on a storm.

To be able to treat all this enormous amount of information, we have developed a python code.
We have started setting out the conditions for a storm and counting how many of them have
happen on the last years. The result has been 225 storms.

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In this plot, we can see the number of storms that have occurred for year.

After having filtered and detected all our storms, we proceed to identify the maximum wave
height of each one of them and once this is done, we apply the POT method. We order all our
data from highest to lowest and calculate the probability of non-excurrence.

We use the following equation in which n represents the data is entered from highest to lowest
(7.09 - 2.51 ). Considering that 𝑁𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠 Correspond to the value of storms found between the
period of years analysed.

With the number of storms we determine the storms per year:

The value of lambda, it is 3.515625.

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Weibull distribution function has the following analytical form:

By combining these two formulas we are able, by varying the parameter C, to calibrate the
Weibull distribution.

The value of C that gives a value of R^2 closer to one is 0.9645207049963388 considered the
optimal C.

With this we can plot the graph of the Weibull distribution function.

With this graph we obtain the values of:

Optimal A: 2.4976249108353654,
Optimal B: 0.6189875267418566,
Optimal C: 0.9645207049963388
R^2: 0.9966703548215071

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Now, knowing the parameters we apply Weibull's formula, which will give us the relationship
between the wave height and the probability of non-exceedance.

Once these calculations have been made, we proceed to choose a return period for our design
based on the ROM.02-09 standard. (“Recomendaciones de Obras Maritimas”), of “Puertos
del Estado”.

In the table below, we visualize the lifetime depending on the level of security and the type of
work.

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As we can see on the table, there are different levels of security, in this case, we have
considered level 1, and chosen as a general infrastructure, as it is for industrial use but we
don’t know if it is just specific for that. Therefore we have chosen a lifetime of 25 years.

We have considered that the possibility of loss is reduced and with a low economic
repercussion so we will use a E value of 0.5.

In this case, the Tr value is 36.07 years.

We have now calculated the probability of not exceeding design with this return period which
has the value of 0.9922.

Then matching this probability with the Weibull distribution equation we obtain the design value
of Hs. In this case, the value of Hs is 5.716.

To end up with this,, to obtain the value of the period relative to the design height value
obtained above, we create a graph with the wave heights and the periods during the storms.
From the following formula we obtain the value.

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Tp = 10.11887s

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ANNEX III:MEAN WATER LEVEL OSCILLATIONS

Another important factor to take into account for the design of coastal structures are the
fluctuations of the sea due to gravitational forces which are the tides. Due to tides, we have to
take another design height as it is important to consider these oscillations when analyzing the
forces acting on our structure.

About tides, we find astronomical tides and meteorological tides

The following formula takes into account this mean water level oscillations:

- Z(t): mean sea level (it varies very slowly with time), for this reason, we disregard it
in this section.
- A(t): periodic variations, (the common astronomical tide).
- M(t): residual or meteorological (irregular) component.

Astronomical tides:

This type of tides belong to the part that is due to the gravitational attraction of the moon and
the sun causes periodic changes in sea level as well as the Earth’s rotation and the Coriolis
force.

To measure the variation generated by those, we will use the harmonic constants that are the
ones that determine these oscillations. We have taken the information from "Puertos del
Estado.”

As there was no information of the Vallcarca port we have taken the ones of the nearest one
that takes this kind of information.

It contains the data for the last years (1993-2024) for the different harmonics, which we will
use.

Also, this is the formula used:

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Where:

‐ A = amplitude
‐ W = frequency
‐ φ = phase
‐ t = time

These are the values subtracted.

The following graph is the oscillations over time.

As we can see the maximum astronomical tidal height is 44.9 cm

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Meteorological tides:

Observed sea levels can vary compared to the predicted tide levels, ranging from a few
centimeters on tropical oceanic islands to several tens of centimeters in stormy, shallow-water
latitudes. Significant flooding may occur, especially in lowland areas near shallow waters,
when major storms coincide with the high tide during the neap tide phase.

The sea is influenced by the atmosphere in two different ways:

● Atmospheric Pressure: The sea surface is subject to a constant vertical force due to
atmospheric pressure. Changes in this pressure lead to variations in sea level.
Typically, an increase of 1 millibar in atmospheric pressure results in a decrease of
around 1 centimeter in sea level.
● Wind Influence: When wind moves over the surface of the sea, it causes the water to
move as well. If the wind is interrupted by land, the water accumulates, resulting in a
convergence and an increase in sea level.

Once again, we will utilize the "Puertos del Estado" website and choose the "Mareógrafo de
Barcelona 2" data between the years 1993-2022. This site provides us with the relationship
between Mean Water level changes and the probability of non-exceedance.

Earlier, we computed the probability of non-exceedance for a return period of 36.07 years,
which had a value of 0.99. This probability ranges from 16 cm to 32cm, and by performing
interpolation, we have a meteorological tide of 23.98 cm

Total oscillation

The total oscillation is the sum of the previous tides

η = 𝐴(𝑡) + 𝑀(𝑡) = 44.9 + 23.98 = 68.88 cm

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ANNEX IV: WAVE PROPAGATION
The data used to calculate the wave climate, which is what is obtained from the buoy, is found
in deep water. On the contrary, our structure will be located on the coast. This will force us to
study how waves propagate. The primary hypothesis is that the structure is in transitional
waters.

Firstly, it is necessary to determine which directional domain will determine the different wave
regimes. Taking the north as a reference, we will divide the plane of the coordinates into 16
different regions. As the structure is a secondary breakwater, the principal breakwater that is
already built stops most of the waves. The following figure shows the directions considered
for the study.

To calculate the wave height in each direction, we need the direction factors K.

First of all, we Calculate the wave heights corresponding to the probabilities 99 % and 99’9 %
of occurrence. Then calculate the mean of both.

- Extreme wave height:

- Directional coeficient:

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The table below shows all the previously indicated parameters for each direction considered.

Directio SSE S SSW SW WSW Units

n:

H_i0,99 1,74 2,21 2,11 1,82 1,74 m

H_i0,99 2,64 3,07 3,35 2,82 2,55 m

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H_i 2,19 2,64 2,73 2,32 2,145 m

Ka 0,80 0,97 1 0,85 0,76

The table above displays the wave height and periods for each direction. The wave height is
calculated as H0 = Hs·K for each direction. The period is determined using the relationship
between wave height and wave period found in the second part of the project.

Directio SSE S SSW SW WSW Units

n:

Ka 0,80 0,97 1 0,85 0,76

Hs 5,71 5,71 5,71 5,71 5,71 m

Ho 4,58 5,52 5,71 4,85 4,49 m

Tp 7,82 9,42 9,74 8,28 7,66 s

Using these values, we can calculate the celerity, the group celerity, and the wavelength in
deep water as follows:

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 Directio SSE S SSW SW WSW Units
n:

Tp 7,82 9,42 9,74 8,28 7,66 s

g 9,81 9,81 9,81 9,81 9,81 m/s2

c_o 12,20 14,71 15,21 12,93 11,95 m/s

c_g 6,10 7,36 7,61 6,46 5,98 m/s

L_o 95,39 138,61 148,23 107,05 91,51 m

We calculate the wavelength at a depth of 6 meters using an iterative method. With this value,
we determine the ratio h/L to assess whether we are in transitional or shallow water. The
obtained h/L values range between 0.5 and 0.05, indicating that we are in intermediate water.
Like in our initial hypothesis.

If we propagate the wave until the counterdike (h=6m).

Direction: SSE S SSW SW WSW Units

L 56 69 72 61 55 m

0,107083 0,0868417 0,0837148 0,0980593

h/L 35 4 4 2 0,109791777

7,161490 7,3150937 7,3372998 7,0900293

c 36 3 7 7 7,146364416 m/s

0,875847 0,9184355 0,8927740

n 3 0,9130035 5 3 0,870684704

6,272371 6,6787062 6,7388370 6,3297941

c_g1 97 1 5 2 6,222230188 m/s

The hypothesis is correct. The breakwater is in transitional waters. We need the incident angle
and the propagation angle, which we relate using Snell's equation.

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To propagate waves, we must consider the refraction of waves caused by the decrease in
depth and the shoaling efects. To calculate this, we use the refraction coefficient and shoaling
coefficient, which are determined as follows:

Direction: SSE S SSW SW WSW Units

Relative 12,5 35 57,5 80 77,5 º

angle 0 (º)

Relative 7,30 16,57 24,00 32,69 35,71 º

angle 1 (º)

Ks 0,99 1,05 1,06 1,01 0,98

Kr 0,99 0,92 0,77 0,45 0,52

Hp 4,48 5,36 4,65 2,23 2,27 m

Once we have obtained the wave height, we need to determine if the wave has broken. If the
wave breaks before reaching the breakwater, we will use the wave height under breaking
conditions, expressing the design wave height Hd as follows:

We utilized the McCowan criteria for irregular waves to determine wave heights under
breaking conditions.

The maximum wave height due to propagation arrives from the South direction, reaching a
height of 5,36 meters. Since we're in a situation where Hp > Hb, which is an impossible
scenario, we will operate under breaking conditions assuming a design wave height equal to
3.6 meters.

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ANNEX V: CROSS-SECTION DEFINITION AND
STABILITY
To determine the cross-section, we used two different methods to compare the results and
achieve a more accurate solution. These methods are the Iribarren-Hudson and Van der Meer
methods.

Iribarren-Hudson

The Iribarren-Hudson equation to scale the elements of the armour layer is:

Where:

p elem 2650 kg/m3

H 4,572 m

H_break 3,6 m

delta 1,58536585

p water 1025 kg/m3

Then we can find the nominal diameter of tha armour elements:

For the core elements, the mass is related to the mass of the armour elements, and the
nominal diameter is calculated in a similar manner as for the armour.

We will dimension the elements for three different slopes: 2:3, 1:2 and 1:3

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 cotg 1,5 2 3

M_50 21186,2838 15889,7128 10593,1419 kg

D_n50 1,99956858 1,81672862 1,58705863 m

M_50c 1059,31419 794,485641 529,657094 kg

D_n50c 0,73664736 0,66928855 0,5846774 m

Van der Meer

To dimension the structure, we need to calculate a factor N, which represents the number of
waves that arrive in a storm. To achieve this, we correlated the wave height of our storms with
their duration, allowing us to calculate the duration of a storm with a wave height of 3.6 meters,
our design wave height.

The security factor S has a value of 2 (depending on the slope). The structure is shielded by
the main dike of the harbor, which mitigates the energy of incoming waves reaching the
counterdike. We have chosen a permeability of 0.4, leading us to design the counterdike with
three layers (armour, filter, and core). This level of permeability is selected because the
structure is not of critical importance, allowing for some permeability while still preventing
excessive water flow into the harbor. However, we aim to avoid significant water fluxes within
the harbor, so the permeability cannot be excessively high.

We must calculate the model and the critical Iribarren parameter and compare them:

cotg 1,5 2 3

Model Iribarren parameter 3,84900179 2,88675135 1,9245009

Critical Iribarren parameter 4,42118317 3,76814927 3,00815092

In the first case, we have surging conditions, while in the last two cases, plunging conditions
prevail. The equations for scaling the armour elements are:

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The nominal diameter is linked to the nominal diameter of the armour elements, and the mass
is computed similarly to the armour. The same procedure applies to the filter elements.

cotg 1,5 2 3

D_n50 (Surgin) 1,92475905 m

D_n50 1,58711085 1,30759957 m

(Plunging)

M_50 18896,2221 10594,1875 5924,75211 Kg

D_n50c 0,24059488 0,19838886 0,16344995 m

M_50c 36,9066838 20,6917725 11,5717815 Kg

D_n50f 0,96237952 0,79355542 0,65379979 m

M_50f 2362,02776 1324,27344 740,594014 Kg

With this method, we obtain smaller values compared to the Iribarren-Hudson method. With
these results we ruled out the option with a lower slope since it will take up a lot of space, both
on the beach and in the port, preventing good circulation of the boats. Seeing that the two
options are very similar, we hope to decide by seeing and comparing the budgets of each one.

The height of the counterdike will be 11 meters, calculated as follows: 6 meters for the mean
water level, 0.8 meters for the mean water level oscillations, 3.6 meters for the wave height,
and an additional 0.6 meters as a security factor. The width of the core is set at 7 meters to
accommodate the circulation of two trucks during construction. The toe length should be
double the diameter of the armour elements, and the thickness of the armour layer must also
be 7.5 meters. The thickness of the filter layer should be 1.5 times the size of the elements of
the armour.

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ANNEX VI: COASTAL IMPACTS
For our project, we will assume that the propagation patterns remain unchanged, thus avoiding
any coastal impacts. The only area potentially affected is the Vallcarca beach, which is small
and deeply nestled within the bay.

There might be an impact post-construction of the breakwater, as it could reflect wave energy
towards the western part of the cove, subsequently directing it towards the interior of the cove.

This phenomenon could potentially lead to increased agitation due to wave reflection,
consequently impacting sediment dynamics. Over time, this could result in the formation of a
sediment barrier in front of the beach. The sand on the beach is made of very fine material,
just like the sand on the coast, and with a very low slope. So we see how without the new work
a lot of solid is already being decided. Therefore, it will be necessary to control that the draft
does not decrease at the entrance and within the port itself.

However, for our project, we have assumed that the additional agitation will be minimal. This
is because waves reflected by the breakwater lose, more or less, 60% of their energy, and
upon striking the coast, they lose another 60% of their energy. Moreover, considering that

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significant waves in these areas originate from the southeast corner, we conclude that coastal
impacts will be almost negligible.

In summary, the coastal impacts resulting from our breakwater will primarily stem from existing
agitation within the industrial port, which is minimal.

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ANNEX VII: BUDGET

In order to be able to get a real approximation of what this project cost, we’ve taken into
account several aspects:

Thanks to the port and the accessible highways, the transport of the materials won’t be either
hard or too expensive. Also, a huge advantage is that the project is located in a zone with
many quarries around from which the materials can be obtained.

To construct the breakwater we will need to extract the materials from one of the quarries, and
in this case, we will assume that we can use the quarry of Vallcarca.

We can also use the full capacity of the trucks and loaders because thanks to the port there
is a lot of space to leave the needed materials, offices, and so on.

We will also consider that each truck, loader and backhoe takes an hour to complete its round

We have considered a price for 1 cubic meter of counterdike plus an approximated time
needed for the trucks to transport and leave the blocks. Having the volume of our counterdike,
we can calculate the final budget:

In the search of the prices we’ve come upon two different ways to count the block, that is why
we have made two different budgets.

The difference between prices is very little, as you can see below. We have decided to choose
the most expensive.

We’ve also made calculations for different slopes, the first breakwater with a relation of 1/1,5
and the second one with a relation of ½. There is a third one with a relation of ⅓ but we think
it is a bit excessive, in terms of costs and also the damage in the zone.

This counterdyke has an area of 94 m2. Considering a longitude of 100 meters, we have 9.400
m3.

Quantity Price Total

Prefabricated block 9.400 m3 163,51 €/m3 1.536.994 €

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 Loader (5-10t) (9) 1.044,4 hours 62,69 € /h 65.473,44 €

Truck (12t) (11) 854,54 hours 53,05 €/h 45.333,63 €

Backhoe (8-10t) (9) 1.044,4 hours 54,34 €/h 56.752,70 €

TOTAL = 1.704.553,77 €

Quantity Price Total

Formwork 9.400 m3 37,38 €/m3 351.372 €

Concrete+armour 9.400 m3 131,45 €/m3 1.235.630 €

Loader (5-10t) 1.044,4 hours 62,69 € /h 65.473,44 €

Truck (12t) 854,54 hours 53,05 €/h 45.333,63 €

Backhoe ( 8-10t) 1.044,4 hours 54,34 €/h 56.752,70 €

TOTAL = 1.754.561,77 €

This one has an area of 101,5 m2: Considering also a longitude of 100 meters, it results in
10.151 m3.

Quantity Price Total

Prefabricated block 10.151 m3 163,51 €/m3 1.659.790 €

Loader (5-10t) (9) 1.127,8 hours 62,69 € /h 70.707,35 €

Truck (12t) (11) 922,8 hours 53,05 €/h 48.955,50 €

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 Backhoe (8-10t) (9) 1.127,8 hours 54,34 €/h 61.289,5 €

TOTAL = 1.840.742,35 €

Quantity Price Total

Formwork 10.151 m3 37,38 €/m3 379.444,38 €

Concrete+armour 10.151 m3 131,45 €/m3 1.334.348,9 €

Loader (5-10t) 1.127,8 hours 62,69 € /h 70.707,35 €

Truck (12t) 922,8 hours 53,05 €/h 48.955,50 €

Backhoe ( 8-10t) 1.127,8 hours 54,34 €/h 61.289,5 €

TOTAL = 1.894.745,68 €

Even though we haven’t been able to get the real prices of the factory of Vallcarca, thanks to
ITEC we can obtain reliable prices of the needed material for the construction of the
breakwater. The prices also include the salary of the workers.

In real life situations, if the results in the calculations are not really different, they usually
choose the cheaper option. In our case, since the difference in price between the two
breakwaters is very close, we will choose the safer one, ergo the most expensive, resulting in
a total budget for our project of 1.894.745 €

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