Dynamic behaviour of plate element simulating asphalt revetment of sea dike during wave attack

摘要

Approximately 400 kilometres of Dutch sea dikes are protected by asphalt revetments to prevent damage from erosion and repeated wave attacks during storms. It is necessary to study the fatigue behaviour of the asphalt revetment and underlying soil. However, to model a thin layer of material with high stiffness, a very fine mesh is often needed in numerical simulations. This decreases the critical time step in explicit time integration algorithms, severely affecting simulation performance. To avoid this problem, a three-noded plate element with fifteen degrees-of-freedom is proposed. It is implemented in a dynamic finite element code, and validated against analytical and numerical solutions. The plate element is then used to model the asphalt revetment of a sea dike, to study the excess pore pressures and displacements generated during cyclic wave attack in a severe storm. The results indicate that the plate element gives realistic results.