(2003-03-01 – 2007-07-31)

Objectives

To develop accurate instruments for surveying rubble-mound breakwaters and to establish methodologies for the diagnosis of this kind of structures.

Methodology

Design, development and test of a high accuracy device to survey the envelope of rubble-mound breakwaters as well as of an autonomous vehicle that carries that device; Development of a database to store and process the survey data that is employed in the structure diagnosis; Development of a numerical package for wave propagation from offshore up to harbour regions thus enabling the transfer of sea-wave characteristics from offshore up to the structure location; Development of a numerical package based on level III probabilistic methods to forecast the armour layer damage evolution from a measure of the armour layer erosion and the wave climate at the structure location.

Results

One device for high accuracy survey of the armour layer envelope of rubble-mound breakwaters; upgrading of an autonomous vehicle to carry out the surveys following a pre-defined mission and that is able to avoid obstacles; Data base to process data from the surveys; numerical package for wave propagation from offshore up to harbour regions; a methodology to estimate armour layer damage evolution; package for photogrametry in scale model test from stereo pairs and that is able to compensate for the air-water interface; 7 reports; 17 papers in international conferences; 14 papers in national conferences; 2 Master of Science dissertations.

References

SILVA, L.G.; SANTOS, J.A.; NEVES, M.G.; SILVESTRE, C.; OLIVEIRA, P.; PASCOAL, A. - Tools for the diagnosis and automated inspection of semi-submerged structures. In Proceedings do 13th International Harbour Congress, DE BROE, E.; THUES, G.; WENS, F., eds. Antuérpia: 30 de Março a 2 de Abril. Technologisch Instituut, 2003, 121-128.

SANTOS, J.A.; NEV ES, M.G.; SILVA, L.G. - Rubble-mound breakwater inspection in Portugal. In Proceedings da Coastal Structures 03, MELBY, J.F., ed. Portland: 26 a 30 de Agosto. ASCE, 2003, 249-261.

SOUSA, I.A.; REIS, M.T.SANTOS, J.A.– Safety assessment using level II probabilistic methods. Application to the Sines’ west breakwater. In Proceedings da International Conference on Coastal Engineering 2004, SMITH, J.M., ed. Lisboa: 19 a 24 de Setembro. World Scientific, 2004, 3543-3554.

SILVESTRE, C.; OLIVEIRA, P.; PASCOAL, A.; SEBASTIÃO, L.; ALVES, J.; SANTOS, J.A.; SILVA, L.G.; NEVES, M.G. - Inspection and diagnosis of Sines’ west breakwater. In Proceedings da International Conference on Coastal Engineering 2004, SMITH, J.M., ed. Lisboa: 19 a 24 de Setembro. World Scientific, 2004, 3555-3567.

FERREIRA, R.; COSTEIRA, J.P.; SANTOS, J.A. – Stereo reconstruction of a submerged scene. In Proceedings da 2nd Iberian Conference on Pattern Recognition, MARQUES, J.S.; PÉREZ DE LA BLANCA, N.; PINA, P., eds. Estoril: 7 a 9 de Junho. Springer, 2005, 102-109.

SOUSA, I.A.; PINHEIRO, L.; SANTOS, J.A.; CAPITÃO, R. – Storm data analysis for risk assessment of rubble-mound structures. In Proceedings do Fifth International Symposium on Ocean Wave Measurement and Analysis, Madrid: 3 a 7 de Julho. CEDEX – ASCE, 2005, versão electrónica.

SANTOS, J.A.; FORTES, C.J.E.M.; PINHEIRO, L.; NEVES, M.G. - SOPRO – A software package for wave effects in ports. In Proceedings do 12 th International Congress of the International Maritime Association of the Mediterranean, GUEDES SOARES, C.; GARBATOV, Y.; FONSECA, N., eds. Lisboa: 26 a 30 de Setembro. Taylor & Francis, 2005, 1143-1151.

Research group

Administração do Porto de Sines, SA – Clara Ferreira, Luís Aparício Fernandes;

LNEC – Ana Catarina Zózimo, Conceição Juana Fortes, Isaac Sousa, João Alfredo Santos (Investigador Responsável), Liliana Pinheiro, Luís Gabriel Silva, Maria da Graça Neves, Rui Capitão, Rute Lemos;

Instituto Superior Técnico – António Pascoal, Bruno Cardeira, Bruno Guerreiro, Carlos Silvestre, João Alves, João Paulo Costeira, Luís Sebastião, Paulo Oliveira, Ricardo Ferreira, Rita Cunha.

Funded by

Agência de Inovação: the MEDIRES project was funded by the European Fund for Regional Development and by funds of the Portuguese Government.

Figure 1 – The survey device mounted on the autonomous vehicle

European Union Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional