Laboratory Studies on Wave Force of Coastal Structures Made of Flat Geotubes

Flat geotubes are widely used for coastal structures such as seawalls, breakwaters and sightseeing groins, etc.. However, the understanding of the stable mechanism involved in the wave-structure interactions should be deepened, and one of the important work is to clarify the stress state of the structure under the wave action. In this article, wave force acting on coastal structures made of flat geotube is experimentally investigated. The required drag, inertia and lift coefficients are especially analyzed from the results of hydraulic model experiments specially designed for geotube structure. Several types of structures made of flat geotubes under wave action have been tested in order to understand the stress state of the geotube fixed to force transducer within different structures. Experimental results show that the wave-induced forces on the instrumented geotube are markedly influenced by wave elements. Meanwhile, the magnitude of horizontal force of adjoining geotube is different at the same time.