Experiment Study Of Wave Action On Gabion Blocks

China has long coastline. In some areas coastal erosion is very serious. Engineering measures are main adoption to protect the existing coastline. The traditional coastal protection measures have good protective effects. But they demand high standard of construction technique. For artificial blocks, the costs need to be mainly considered. At the same time these artificial blocks may not be suitable for local environment, and may damage the ecological environment. Gabion structures which are made by new materials have a lot of advantages. For instance, they are constructed simply and quickly at low cost and beneficial to the ecological environment. So the gabion structures become the ideal choice in coastal protection. However there are a lot of shortcomings in the study of wave action on gabion blocks which leads to a lack of theoretical support in the application of gabion. So the study of wave action on gabion blocks and summarizing related calculation formula will be of great guiding significance in engineering.This paper reviews the previous studies of wave action on gabion blocks and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages. Through physical model experiments, this paper systematically studies wave run-up on the gabion covered slope and the stability of gabion. This paper analyzes the factors that influence wave run-up on slope. The factors include wave height, wavelength, water depth and slope. And then the empirical formula of the wave run-up on the gabion covered slope is summarized. The empirical formula is also compared with the wave run-up formula in Code of Hydrology for Sea Harbour and Code for Design of Levee Project. The paper also analyses the reasons why gabion blocks are damaged and puts forward the measures of stabilizing gabion. The stable weight is compared between gabion and other commonly used artificial blocks. The empirical formula of gabion stability is concluded after analyzing influencing factors like wave height, wave period, slope and the size of gabion.