Distribution of individual wave overtopping volumes at rubble mound seawalls

For a safe design of a rubble mound seawall, overtopping characteristics such as the mean overtopping discharge (q) and the maximum individual overtopping volume (V_max) should be limited. Unlike q, the estimation of V_max is more complex and requires a wave-by-wave analysis of overtopping as well as a statistical analysis. The present study contributes to the knowledge of the distribution of individual overtopping volumes and the estimation of V_max at rubble mound seawalls. A total of 135, small-scale 2D physical model tests were conducted across a practical range of crest freeboards and considered the slopes of 1:1.5 and 1:2. The well-known 2-parameter Weibull and Exponential distributions were first fitted to the experimental data to estimate the V_max. Different approaches to sample the observed distribution of wave-by-wave overtopping volumes were evaluated including a threshold method using the top 10%, 30%, and 50% of individual overtopping volumes, and a method that applies a greater weighting to the larger events. For both Weibull and Exponential distributions, the weighted method was found to be the best one providing a 23% and 17% decrease in scatter index (SI) values compared to the best of existing methods. To facilitate the estimation of V_max for design purposes, a simple empirical formula was developed as a function of the dimensionless mean overtopping discharge (q*) and the number of overtopping waves (N_ow). This formula with SI = 37% outperformed the distribution-based methods as well as the best of existing formulae for V_max. In the case of the normalised bias (NBIAS), the distribution methods underestimated V_max by −21% (Weibull) and −31% (Exponential) whereas the new formula yielded NBIAS = −6%.