Physical modeling of sand-filled geosystems for coastal protection

PHYSICAL MODELLING OF SAND-FILLED GEOSYSTEMS FOR COASTAL PROTECTION L. DAS NEVES, M.L. LOPES, F. VELOSO-GOMES, F. TAVEIRA-PINTO Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Abstract: Unidirectional irregular waves of varying significant wave-height and peak period but with a constant spectral shape (JONSWAP spectrum, =3.3) were generated over a sandy 3:20 sloped plane beach to investigate scour fronting a dune erosion control system constructed from geotextiles, slope inclined at 45º. Both passive (i.e., three dune erosion control systems with two configurations) and active (i.e., one nearshore submerged structure with four configurations) structures are investigated. A twodimensional physical movable-bed model simulating the prototype dune-beach systems of Estela, located along the NW Portuguese coast, is employed in this study. The paper presents a brief characterization of the prototype conditions and discusses requirements and limitations on the choice of model scale for the waves, the sediments, and the geotextile materials. Keywords: geotextiles, erosion, scour, beach lowering, movable-bed models. 1 INTRODUCTION The application of geosystems in coastal engineering still has a very incidental character, and it is usually not treated as a serious alternative to the conventional solutions. The explanation for this lays on uncertainty, partly related to the lack of suitable design methods (see, e.g., Recio, 2007), and partly related to material durability and life-time performance (see, e.g., Pilaczyk, 2000). Geotextiles as containment systems in coastal engineering have been used successfully as temporary structures (in emergency works or to learn the impacts on coastal processes and how they will affect the system and neighbouring systems), in shallow water and in low wave energy coasts with a low tidal range. They have as well been used successfully associated with regular artificial sand nourishment. However, their utilization as a permanent structure in high wave energy coasts carries several implications and is so far unproven. In the present work, which is a summary of das Neves (2011), physical modelling is used to study the stability of sand-filled geosystems under wave loading with emphasis on the issues of scour development and more widespread beach lowering. Early work in the area of the application of geosystems in coastal engineering include: van Steeg and Vastenburg (2010) on large scale model tests on the stability of geotextile tubes; Oumeraci and Recio (2009) on geotextile sand containers for shore protection; van Steeg and Breteler (2008) on large scale physical model tests on the stability of geocontainers; Recio (2007) on the effect of deformations on the hydraulic stability of geotextile sand containers for coastal structures; Recio and Oumeraci (2007b) on the permeability of geotextile sand containers; Recio and Oumeraci (2007c) on the processes affecting the hydraulic stability of geotextile sand-filled containers; Oumeraci et. al. (2002) on the hydraulic stability of geotextile sand containers under wave loading; and Bezuijen et al. (2004), Bezuijen et al. (2002a, 2002b), and Bezuijen et al. (2000) on field and model tests on the placing accuracy and stability of geocontainers. The book by Pilarczyk (2000) has covered developments which took place until late nineties, and is still a valuable reference for a comprehensive understanding of geosystems in coastal engineering. The research programme described in this paper focus on scour development and beach lowering, to investigate the efficiency of various geosystems in maintaining a beach and in protecting the shoreline. The analysis is based on a series of laboratory measurements of wave-induced morphodynamic changes. A beach located at the northwestern Portuguese coast was used as prototype. Five models, matching to three dune erosion control systems with two configurations, one nearshore detached breakwater with four configurations and one non-protected dune-beach system (hereafter designated as Model A) as reference were taken for the investigation. The models were submitted to a total of ten different sea-states (i.e., combinations of four significant wave-heights and four peak periods), which corresponded to balance conditions of erosion, accretion, persistent erosion, and erosion followed by infilling and again erosion. 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROTOTYPE DUNE-BEACH SYSTEM The Estela Golf course is located in Estela, a municipality of Póvoa do Varzim, approximately 9km north of its city harbour and just south of a coastal protected area (Figure 1). It is situated along the northwestern coast of Portugal in a 3km-long dune system. Dredging activities at the River Cávado and morphological changes in the river basin caused the decrease in the volume of sediments transported by the littoral drift. The completion of other groynes and seawalls, namely in the sand spit of Ofir and in the coast of Cedo Bem and Apúlia, further aggravate that reduction by retaining some more sediments. Figure 1. Aerial view of the beach-dune system of Estela (photo by Francisco Piqueiro). The first documented intervention, done during the period of 1 to 12 April 1999, consisted of located reinforcement of the dune toe through mechanical ripping with sand from the frontal beach and consolidation of this sand deposit with wood piles and small 5kg sand bags (Veloso-Gomes et al., 2006). Since then periodic interventions consisting of the piling up of beach sediment to the dune and replacement of tear, lost or displaced bags occur. Table 1 summarizes the total cost of interventions per year from 1999 to 2009. The average cost per year is around 25,000.00€, 15% of which corresponds to material costs. The higher costs on Table 1 are associated with years of more frequent storms regardless its intensity. This was the case in 2000/2001 and again in 2009. Figure 2 show some recent images of the dune taken on the winter and spring 2009/2010. The prototype conditions to be replicated in the physical experiments are the average cross-shore beach profile (i.e., beach slope, dune slope, and dune crest height and base position), wave conditions, and sediment properties (i.e., grain size-distribution and particle characteristic diameters). Table 1. Total cost of interventions from 1999 to 2009 (source: Estela Golf, S.A.). Year Cost (in Euros) No. of bags (approx) 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 27,433.88 52,373.78 44,570.12 16,736.00 20,085.40 8,681.00 3,945.00 9,853.50 9,837.00 25,050.52 43,309.60 - - 2983 1620 1960 660 - 1150 150 2637 3212 Total 261,875.80 14372 Figure 2. Views of the dune-beach system of Estela, March 2010. 3 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP The experiments have been conducted in a partition of the wave basin of the Hydraulics Laboratory of the Hydraulics (LH), Water Resources and Environment Division (SHRHA) of the Department of Civil Engineering (DEC) of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), which is 28m long, 12m wide, and 1.2m high but was partitioned to a wave channel of 2.25m wide, comprising 3 wavepaddles out of the 16 comprising the HR Wallingford multi-element wave generation system available at LH SHRHA-DEC-FEUP. At one end irregular waves of varying significant wave-height and period but with a constant spectral shape (JONSWAP spectrum, =3.3) were generated in a working water depth of 0.58m, which corresponds to the mean water level in prototype. A plane beach (gradient =0.15) starts 9.7m from the wave paddles followed by a dune (or erosion control system). Surface elevations were recorded seaward the beach slope from an array of four wave probes with known spacing. Pore-pressure sensors of 9mm diameter were installed to study waveinduced pore pressure variations. The beach-profile was surveyed at the end of each wave-run segment using a 2D bed profiler that drives along a support beam. The origin of the horizontal co-ordinate, x, and the origin of the vertical coordinate, z, is taken as the intersection of the still water line with the beach face, positive onshore. A 10 cm square grid was installed on the glass wall of the basin allowing the visual inspection of profile changing during experiments and providing a reference in viewing the visual recording of the tests. Time-series data and profiles were collected from over 150 movable-bed tests, with different models and wave conditions. 3.1 Wave Conditions The incident waves were chosen from the statistical analysis by Coelho (2005) of the data recorded by the oceanographic buoy at Leixões from 1981 to 2003. From this study is possible to find that the significantly more frequent wave heights range from 0.5 to 2.5m, with ~72% of cases. The maximum wave height being recorded was 9m. Wave-heights higher than 2.5m correspond to ~27%, from which no more than 11% above 5.5m. Only 1% of the records correspond to waves lower than 0.5m. The more frequent values of wave period vary between 7 and 11s, with less than 4s and higher than 17s as minimum and maximum observed respectively. The controlling factors with respect to the limiting values of the period and height of the model waves were determined in correspondence with the statistical analysis provided in Coelho (2005) along with the threshold of maximum wave-height that can be achieved at a particular frequency which is limited by either the performance of the wave generation system (maximum stroke, velocity and force achievable) or the wave breaking. The experiments were conducted only for irregular waves, because as has been demonstrated many times by several authors the use of regular waves with height and period equal to those of significant wave can give inconsistent or erroneous results in the analysis of wave transformation and action of waves (see, e.g., Goda, 2000). 3.2 Considerations on the Choice of Model Scale While selecting the scaling criteria and scale ratios of the movable-bed model, the following general principles were assumed:  Geometrically undistorted model;  Nearshore hydrodynamics parameters to be modeled according to Froude similarity;  Movable-bed model to be composed of sand material;  Suspended load transport to be the dominant mode-of-sand-transport;  Selected model length scale should be made as large as possible so that the character of the wave breaking process is properly simulated, i.e., so that viscous and surface tension effects are negligible. The first approximations to the beach slope and sand material in the model have been derived from prototype. As far as the beach slope is concerned, it was kept as a plane slope for most of the experiments, to facilitate the direct comparison of the measurements. With respect to the sand material, sediment transport scaling rules, as described in e.g. Hughes (1993), Oumeraci (1993), and Dalrymple (1985), based on samples collected from the prototype in two beaches along the NW Portuguese coast at different positions alongand across-shore were calculated. Sieving curves of both the sands, prototype (given as the average curves at similar positions across-shore) and model (referenced as SP55), are given in Figure 3. Figure 3. Prototype and model sediment grain size distributions. According to Hughes (1993), in the nearshore region, turbulent water motions play a greater role in mobilizing and transporting sediment; and in this region there is increasing evidence that the dimensionless fall speed parameter, should be similar in both prototype and model. Van Rijn (2006), Jiménez and Madsen (2003) and further references cited therein include several of the most important formulas to compute the fall speed of natural sediments, for example, Zanke (1977), Hallermeier (1981), Dietrich (1982), van Rijn (1984), Julien (1995), Soulsby (1997), Cheng (1997), Sistermans (2000), Ahrens (2000, 2003), and Jiménez and Madsen (2003), for quartz particles, and for calcareous particles the ones from van der Meulen (1988), and Smith and Cheung (2003). In the current investigation, the sediment fall speed of both the sands, prototype and model, were calculated using Hallermeier’s relationships (see, e.g., Hughes, 1993). The chosen length scale model, NL, was 12. Refer to das Neves (2011) for further detail on the choice of model scale. 3.3 Sand-filled Geosystems Three types of geosystems were used in the model tests; sand-filled containers, and sand wrapped around geotextile sheets made from commercially available non-woven geotextile filters, and geotextile tubes of different sizes made from commercially available woven geotextile filters. Although the geosystems used in the model tests are made from commercially available geotextile materials, it is not possible to use the geotextile that is used in the prototype. The following scaling aspects were considered: stiffness and tensile strength of the geotextile during wave experiments; stiffness and tensile strength of the geotextile during filling; and sand tightness. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0.063 0.125 0.250 0.500 1 2 4 8 16 32 63 CUMULATIVE WEIGHT PERCENT RETAINED SIEVE DIAMETER (mm) near the waterline near the dune intermediate 2 intermediate 1 SP55 Table 2 gives a summary of some properties of the prototype and model geotextiles. As can be easily demonstrated complete similarity of the geotextile properties is impossible, as for example the thickness scale would be equal to the length scale (NL), whereas the tensile strength scaling would have to be the square of the length scale (NL2), and the water permeability scale would have to be equal to the square root of that scale (NL-1/2). A comprise is thus necessary while scaling down material properties. Table 2. Summary of material properties in prototype and model. Property Unit Woven Non-woven Prototype Model Prototype Raw material Mass per unit area Thickness Tensile strength MD: machine direction CMD: cross machine direction Elongation at nominal strength MD: machine direction CMD: cross machine direction Characteristic opening size Water permeability - g/m2 mm kN/m    m l/(s m2) PP 1000 - 198 189     20 PE 300 - 40 20     65 PES 1000 5.3 30 50     10 PP 300 1.6 13 22     40 Refer to Morais (2010) for further detail on the characterization of the properties of the prototype and model geotextiles taken for this investigation and on possible scaling effects due to non-satisfied scaling criteria. Figure 4 presents a sketch of Models B to D, variants 1 and 2, and Model E, variants 1 to 4 being investigated. A fifth model of a non protected dune-beach system, Model A, has been used as a reference case. The 3 different erosion control geosystems employed in these experiments were: several individual geotextile sand-filled containers, designated as Model B (top panel in Figure 4); a wrapped-around system, designated as Model C (middle panel in Figure 4); and geotextile tubes designated as Model D (bottom panel in Figure 4). Each one of the models had two variant configurations, 1 and 2 that differ in the position of the structure toe, placed at level +0.00m (SWL) that is (x,z)~(0.16,-0.16), and +2.00m (SWL) that is (x,z)~(0.31,0), respectively. All models have the crest height at approximately 0.42m (+7.00m in prototype) and were built with a 1:1 slope. The nearshore submerged breakwater (Model E) configurations were deduced from the definition parameters, position to the shoreline, and submergence. The latter was kept constant at 0.165m. With respect to the former, the locations of the submerged nearshore breakwater were off-shore zone, surf zone and an in-between locations having Model A as reference. The rationale for defining the location of the nearshore submerged structures was defined with basis on the standard equilibrium beach-profile shape proposed by Dean in 1977 (see, e.g., USACE, 2008). Refer to das Neves (2011) for further detail. This model was constructed from geotextile tubes, either as stacked tubes, E1 (six small stacked tubes, 3-2-1 stack) and E2 (three small tubes placed behind each other and a fourth medium tube on top, 3-1 stack), or single tubes, E3 (one medium tube) and E4 (one small tube), see Figure 4. The dimensions of the geotextile tubes used to build Model E correspond to the diameters, in prototype, of ϕ1.60m, and ϕ3.25m. The key theoretical parameters that relate the diameter of the tube with its dimensions when filled are the ratio maximum height to diameter (H/D~0.6), and the ratio basewidth to diameter (b/D~0.9). In the model such relationships, between diameter and maximum height, and between diameter and base-width, differ slightly from those in prototype. The tubes were filled with the same clean silicate-sand. TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.50m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~-0.16m P1FP1I P2FP2I P3FP3I P4FP4I TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.50m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~0.00m P1FP1I P2FP2I P3FP3I P4FP4I MODEL B1 MODEL B2 TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.50m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~-0.16m P1F P2F P3F P4F P1I P3I P4I P2I TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.50m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~0.00m P1F P2F P3F P4F P1I P2I P3I P4I MODEL C1 MODEL C2 TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.38m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~-0.16m P3F P4F P3I P4I TO WAVE GENERATOR X Z SEA BOTTOM ~0.38m STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.42m ~0.00m P4FP4I P3FP3I MODEL D1 MODEL D2 TO WAVE GENERATOR SEA BOTTOM ~2.5m TO SHORELINE STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.165m ~0.40m P1I P1F P4I P4F P2I P2F P3F P3I TO WAVE GENERATOR SEA BOTTOM ~2.3m TO SHORELINE STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.165m ~0.40m P1I P1F P4I P4F P2I P2F P3F P3I MODEL E1 MODEL E2 TO WAVE GENERATOR SEA BOTTOM ~1.9m TO SHORELINE STILL-WATER-LEVEL ~0.165m ~0.24m P4FP4I P3I P3F TO WAVE GENERATOR SEA BOTTOM ~1.1m TO SHORELINE STILL WATER LEVEL ~0.165m ~0.13m P3F P4F P3I P4I MODEL E3 MODEL E4 Figure 4. Sketch of Models B to D, variants 1 and 2, and Model E, variants 1 to 4, from top to bottom respectively (not to scale, P marks the location of the pore-pressure sensors). 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The carried out experimental work aimed at (i) the stability of geotextile encapsulated sand-systems against scour and more widespread beach lowering; (ii) the cross-shore component of sediment transport to study the response of a dune-beach system under conditions of erosion, accretion, persistent erosion and conditions alternating between periods of erosion and accretion; and (iii) the comparison of four different coastal protection schemes against each other, and against a reference case. For this purpose different models of active and passive coastal defence structures were set-up to run on similar hydrodynamic and morphodynamic conditions. The intercomparison carried out on the hydrodynamic and morphodynamic outputs produced by each scheme focused on the scour and deposition patterns over the test period evaluated on the parameters deepwater wave characteristics, reflection coefficient, and wave-induced pore-pressures. The next step was to increase understanding of the response of the beach under persistent erosional conditions and under periods of erosion followed by infilling and again erosion. In the assessment of the overall performance of each coastal protection scheme five perspectives were considered: stability of geotextile encapsulated sand-systems under wave-loading; scour-depth development: scour holes development and scour-and-deposition patterns over the cross-shore length of the model; observations of erosion and backfilling during a test duration; dependency between scourdepth and non-dimensional variables as given in the literature; storm response: changes in cross-shore beach-profile when exposed to storm conditions lasting for a test duration of 30 minutes; beach levels drawdown at the structure and more widespread beach lowering; recovery between storms: response to the changing forcing conditions; build up during swell conditions, followed by beach levels drawdown during storm conditions; volumetric changes due to seasonal variability; and coastal evolution: beachprofile change under persistent erosional conditions. Some selected results are briefly described next, more detailed information can be found in das Neves (2011). A comparison between the initial plane beach and the end measured profiles for one selected seastate is presented in Figure 5 for the passive coastal defence structures, models B to D, variants 1 and 2, and in Figure 6 for the active coastal defence structures, Model E, variants 2, 3, and 4. The measurements with Model E, variant 1, have not been included in the analysis because the test was interrupted when the structure became unstable after approximately 11mn wave action (Figure 7). Model A, the initial dunebeach system profile and a sketch location of the submerged nearshore detached breakwaters are given as reference. Figure 5. Comparison of initial and end beach profiles for sea-state 8 (Hs=2.0 m, Tp=10 s, in prototype). -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 -3-2.5-2-1.5-1-0.500.51 ELEVATION TO STILL-WATER LEVEL (m) DISTANCE TO SHORELINE (m) Model A Model B1 Model B2 Model C1 Model C2 Model D1 Model D2 Figure 6. Comparison of initial and end beach profiles for sea-state 8 (Hs=2.0 m, Tp=10 s, in prototype). Figure 7. Model E1, sea-state 10 (Hs=0.125 m, Tp=2.89 s): model become unstable after ca. of 11 min wave action. Figure 5 show that the beach-profile change is similar in the examined cases. The shoreline has retreat as far as the established structure and a nearshore-bar has developed. The erosion in the vicinity of the shoreline roughly equalled the accumulation in the bar area, indicating that the sand was transported from the beach and deposited near the main breaker line; some of it was carried even farther offshore (e.g., in the cases where the beach-profile was exposed to persistent erosional conditions). The bar accumulation in the case of Model A is greater as compared to the other cases in analysis, especially during the higher waves; while the shoreline recession is much smaller. Although these may presumably be expected morphologic change given that the sands eroded from the dune would be transported to the beach, it is remarkably striking to realize that the net volume changes in Model A are substantively higher than in the other models which corroborates Dean’s approximate principle, i.e. eroded volume is less than or equal to volume retained by the structure had it not been in place (see, e.g., USACE, 2008). The distance of the bar to shoreline is similar between models but that distance is generally longer in variants 2. It is clear from the preceding results and figures that there was a lowering of the beach levels around the various passive coastal protection schemes. Under persistent erosional conditions (even under constant wave-height) the beach level fall as low as the baseline across the entire profile as a result of a cross-shore profile migration; within which the sediments initially deposited at the lower beach face move further seaward, thereby extending the bar, with time a double bar along the beach-profile starts to develop, as sediments are moved offshore and a moderately deep trough starts to build up. The analysis of the computed volumetric changes, reveal that the incidence of higher values of cumulative volume lost is in straight connection to the volume of sand deposited in the nearshore-bar (das Neves, 2011). -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 -3-2.5-2-1.5-1-0.500.51 ELEVATION TO STILL-WATER LEVEL (m) DISTANCE TO SHORELINE (m) Model A Model E2 Model E3 Model E4 E4 E3 E2