Wave impact on slope revetment - A problem of long term stability

The wave load on dike revetments is discussed in many papers, most of them are however related to the physics of the breaker impact and its stochastic characteristics. There are very few informations about the loading of soils which form the sandfill of dikes and about their reactions. So it is relatively unknown, how the breaker impact and the changing water level pass through the revetment into the sandfill, how stresses and strains of the sandfill vary with load and time and how the soil reacts to these loads. This paper is based on the results of a research project which was concerned with the loading of soils beneath closed dike revetments. It shows, that there are rapidly changing stresses due to wave loads within the sandfill and that the reaction is mainly influenced by the volumetric strain behaviour of soil within the sandfill. The paper gives a general description of the soil behaviour under wave load and of failure conditions which lead to loss of stability of the revetment.