Prediction of damage level of inner conventional rubble mound breakwater of tandem breakwater using swarm intelligence-based neural network (PSO-ANN) approach

Abstract

The conventional rubble mound breakwater is a coastal protective structure commonly used decades before which alone failed to withstand the deepwater wave and its energy, and suffered a catastrophic failure. Keeping in mind both the safe functioning of harbor and stability of the breakwater for the fast-growing economy of the country, different types of breakwaters are being developed to serve this purpose. Tandem breakwater is an innovative type of breakwater, which is a combination of main conventional rubble mound breakwater and submerged reef in front of it. One of the advantages of this breakwater is that most of the wave energy is dissipated and wave intensity is reduced by submerged reef and the smaller waves interact with main breakwater and ensure its stability. Experimental studies are laborious and time-consuming to conduct. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out the detailed study of tandem breakwater stability by making use of simple and alternate techniques using the experimental data. In the present study, an attempt is made to understand the suitability and applicability of PSO-ANN, a hybrid soft computing technique for predicting damage level of conventional rubble mound breakwater of tandem breakwater. Based on the experimental data available in Marine Structure Laboratory, NITK, Surathkal, India, soft computing models are developed. The performances of the models are evaluated using model performance indicators. Results obtained demonstrate that the proposed new approach can be used to predict the damage level of conventional rubble mound breakwater of tandem breakwater efficiently and accurately. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019