Abstract: An erosion control system that uses massive hollow reinforced concrete blocks that can contain bulky fill material such as sand, mud, shell or concrete rip rap. The blocks can be arranged in desired geometric patterns at coastal areas subject to erosion control.

Abstract: A seawall system comprising a concrete seawall and means for providing a footing upon which the seawall rests. The seawall has a lower portion provided to be below the normal water level and an upper portion provided to be above the normal water level, a top, a bottom to rest upon the footing means, a back to face the earth and away from the water, and a front to face the water. The front has an upper front panel above the normal water level and a lower front panel below the normal water level. The seawall is formed to have a plurality of recesses in the lower front panel providing nesting places and habitats for marine life and other wildlife normally found in the water environment.

Abstract: A weighed water permeable fabric is laid over a bottom sediment and an adjacent seawall structure. A layer of integral paired star-shaped blocks is laid over the bottom covering fabric in an interrelated pattern in a horizontal and vertical plane. A bore is located within each star-shaped portion of the block and these bores are aligned with corresponding bores in blocks mounted vertically. A concrete piling is drilled or poured in place through the bores to the bottom sediment to hold the structure in place against severe storm surges and resist outward movement of the seawall.

Abstract: Stationary zigzag breakwater embedded into the sea bottom or floating breakwater. The determining factor for the wave-reflecting characteristics and the structural stability of the breakwater is the appropriate dimensioning of the zigzag elements. In stationary breakwaters embedded into the sea bottom, the length (1) of the zigazg elements is at least equal to or greater, preferably 5 to 8 times as great or greater, than the depth of water (d). The total height (h) of the wave-reflecting side walls is at least equal to or greater than the depth of water (d), preferably 2 to 2.5 times greater than the depth of water (d). In floating breakwaters, the length (1) of the zigzag elements is at least equal to or greater than half of the maximum foreseeable wave length. The total height (h) of the wave-reflecting side walls (11) is at least equal to or greater than 1 to 1.5 times the maximim foreseeable wave height. The zigzag elements (7, 8) are interconnected by means of oscillation-damping connecting members (9).

Abstract: An offshore erosion protection structure comprising a barrier assembly having an elongated configuration and running substantially parallel in corresponding relation to the configuration of the shoreline and defined by a plurality of spaced apart and successively arranged modules specifically structured, configured and disposed to reverse the erosion of sand by waves of various strength on the shoreline by decelerating the travel of the incoming waves. The sand, held in suspension by the wave caused turbulence, will settle out in the nearshore zone thereby creating a tendency of reversing erosion by adding sand to the shoreline or beaches.

Abstract: An erosion control system that uses massive hollow reinforced concrete blocks that can contain bulky fill material such as sand, mud, shell or concrete rip rap. The blocks can be arranged in desired geometric patterns at coastal areas subject to erosion control.

Abstract: A breakwater comprises a base and an interlocking plurality of vertically-oriented elements of generally quadrangular cross-section. The elements are mounted on a vertically-fixed upper surface of the base, form a monolithic horizontally-extending fascine, and define a vertically stepped mosaic crown.

Abstract: A seawall extension apparatus is provided for use with a capped seawall. The apparatus includes a wall section and a support assembly for holding the wall section such that the wall section extends generally upwardly from the cap of the seawall. The support assembly is releasably secured to the seawall cap.

Abstract: There is described a water wave absorber, particularly suitable for use in testing tanks, to reduce the reflection of generated waves. The absorber comprises a series of sheets of unflattened expanded material, usually metal, positioned one behind the other and the sheets being arranged in generally decreasing porosity from the front of the wave absorber to the rear thereof.

Abstract: An erosion control system that uses massive hollow reinforced concrete blocks that can contain bulky fill material such as sand, mud, shell or concrete rip rap. The blocks can be arranged in desired geometric patterns at coastal areas subject to erosion control.

Abstract: Disclosed is a device for protecting against beach erosion. The device has a supporting platform that rests on the sea bottom, and an upwardly curved surface extending from the platform. In one embodiment the concave side faces incoming waves and the convex side faces the seabed. The upwardly curved surface deflects incoming waves upwardly, thus breaking the major portion of their force before they impact upon the beach. The platform and curved surface together form a wall like a barrier that blocks the path of sand washed from the beach, so as to trap the sand for reclaimation before it migrates so far out to seat to be lost irretrievably. The platform can have extending from it anchoring feet to anchor the device in the seabed. In another embodiment the disposition of these convex and concave surfaces is reversed.

Abstract: A mosaic seawall comprises a fascine of vertically-elongated structural prisms of generally identical cross-section. Each of the elements has at least one lateral face abutting a lateral face of another of the prisms to define a common lateral face extending substantially the full vertical extent of at least one of the abutting prisms. A plurality of the prisms together define in cross-section a stable mosaic to resist overturning or sliding under the wave action, a plurality of the prisms together defining an echeloned or vertically stepped mosaic crest.

Abstract: An ocean diversion wall is provided to be placed within water for preventing erosion due to wave action. The wall consists of a plurality of off shore facing segments formed as one continuous unit. Each of the segments include a base portion supported on the ocean floor. The base portion has an inclined surface to receive an incoming wave, a curved cup surface to deflect the wave upwardly and a hooked end to turn the wave back onto itself to reduce the force of the wave.

Abstract: Erosion control apparatus for controlling erosion of a seashore comprising a plurality of interconnected, symmetrical lakeshore protection members. Each lakeshore protection members includes three equiangularly disposed, generally planar panels, each having one lateral edge portion integrally coupled to a hub. The lake shore protection member comprises hardened cast material having a unique reinforcing system embedded therein.

Abstract: A breakwater comprised of an array of aligned perforated-wall caissons having a slab bottom standing on a pervious rubble base and anchored by its own weight incorporates exceptionally heavy ballasting to ensure stability under attack by large waves, i.e. to that the ratio of maximum horizontal thrust force to downward vertical force is below about 0.46.The immersed wall height is much reduced so that the slab bottom lies below mean sea level about 1.3 to 1.7 times the height of the greatest wave predicted, lessening costs of construction and siting. Efficient energy dissipation function is preserved by placement of augmenting mass below the height of the wave trough and by providing flow passages for jets directed by front wall ducts, avoiding increase of reflection coefficient.

Abstract: A beach building block which is formed with a single passageway extending in a vertical inclination therethrough and which presents a solid wall at the rearward side of the block for containment of sand and the like behind the block and thereby build a beach. The blocks are positioned in row parallel to the shoreline, and while they permit the wave to flow through the block, they dissipate the energy of the wave, and they also retard the return flow of the water with the suspended sand, and thus the beach is built behind the block by the deposit of the sand.

Abstract: An erosion control system is disclosed which includes a seawall for protecting dunes or bluffs located adjacent a body of water. The seaward side of the seawall is notched or concave to direct incoming waves upwardly and outwardly, away from the base of the seawall and the bluff. The landward side is also notched or concave. This side is backfilled with soil which acts on the back surfaces of the seawall to lock the seawall into place. The erosion control system also includes a drain field that is installed below the bluff, behind the seawall. The drain field is in communication with the body of water via pipes extending through the seawall. The drain removes water from the bluff, thus decreasing the hydrostatic pressures within the bluff. This stabilizes the bluff itself and the seawall by decreasing the forces associated with hydrostatic pressure.

Abstract: A system for utilizing the energy of waves in the ocean, comprising a wall having a plurality of compartments separated by vertical and horizontal partitions. The water of a wave covers the entrance of a compartment and then enters the compartment, and the wave advance forces the air in that compartment through a conduit, past a non-return valve and into a storage tank, from which the compressed air may then be supplied to a turbine, or the like. The partitions between compartments assure that while the entrance to one compartment may be covered with water, whereby the air therein is forced to the storage tank, the air does not escape through other compartments which are not then covered.

Abstract: A concrete breakwater module for use with like modules positioned side-by-side in a line along or offshore from a beach or bluff for preventing erosion due to wave action and for reversing previous erosion. Each module has a single, large, upwardly concave, wave-energy-absorbing trough of partly cylindrical and partly flat-bottomed contour adjacent rear and front upright walls respectively located at opposite ends of a bottom, base wall. The front wall has a sloping front end surface directing incoming waves and spray over the trough. The rear wall is substantially higher than the front wall to intercept waves and spray and re-direct them downwardly along a cylindrical surface and forwardly in the trough providing a rolling and swirling action of water which erupts at the front wall in a countercurrent manner against waves and spray overtopping the front wall.

Abstract: An assembly for damping sea waves that constitutes a floating breakwater for protecting a sea wall. A plurality of vertical pilings extend into the sea bed and are spaced apart from each other and extend parallel to the sea wall. Automobile tires are positioned about the pilings and are supported by a platform made of struts on opposite sides of the pilings that extend parallel to the sea wall, with transverse stringers maintaining the struts in parallel and spaced relationship and also free to move vertically with respect to the pilings. The combined buoyancy of the tires and platform is such that the top surfaces of the tires are positioned substantially at the surface of the sea. A support beam structure is attached to the pilings generally along the tops thereof and interconnects the pilings, together with rigid tieback members that connect the pilings to the sea wall, all to aid in maintaining the pilings in vertical and spaced-apart relationship.

Abstract: Blocks for constructing a breakwater substantially comprises a front wall, a rear wall disposed in parallel and spaced-apart relationship relative to the front wall, and at least one partition wall disposed perpendicular to the front and rear walls and integrally connecting the above two walls to form at least one vertical open-ended chamber between the front and rear walls, wherein the improvement is characterized in that at least one vertical open-ended hole is formed on each of the front and real walls of the block such that the vertical open-ended hole can be in alignment with corresponding vertical open-ended holes formed in the same manner on front and rear walls of the blocks in upper and lower rows when the blocks are arranged in rows and stacked vertically.

Abstract: A unitized modular structure is provided for utilizing the kinetic energy in waves, tides and winds to effect deposits of fluid entrained alluvium. The modular structure is formed of individual modular elements each of which has a sloping rear surface and a generally concave surface along the front thereof. The modular elements are reinforced interiorly, and certain of the elements are provided with integral foot members to position, stabilize and anchor the unitized structure during and after installation.

Abstract: A fluid wave energy dissipating and absorbing structure having at least one surface exposed to fluid wave action, said surface comprising an array of alternating three-sided pyramidal protuberances and triangular flat spaces, said protuberances and spaces being alternating in both rows and columns. Erosion caused by fluid wave action may be prevented or mitigated by erecting on a surface subject to such erosion a fluid wave energy dissipating and absorbing structure, and forming on said structure at least one surface exposed to the eroding fluid wave action, said surface comprising an array of alternating three-sided pyramidal protuberances and triangular flat spaces as above described.

Abstract: Erosion control units comprising a retaining wall means, sand-gravel collecting means and breaker means are installed substantially parallel to the bank to withstand the water's forces. The erosion control units protect the bank-hillside from erosion, aid in forming beaches and build up sand-gravel sideways along adjacent neighboring property.

Abstract: A ballasting block for use as chamber floor loading in a concrete caisson breakwater made up of horizontally-arrayed sections having perforated front walls, or for use as armor capping on rubble mound breakwaters, is of parallelepipedic form with two pairs of sides meeting at right angles, and front and rear end faces of rectilinear outline having openings recessed therein defined by at least one through passage extending the length of the block, serving as flow-guiding channel means. A preferred form for caisson ballasting as one or more layers of closely-spaced blocks, is a cube, or a rectangular prism, molded of concrete of weight from about one tonne to about twenty tonnes, having a single passage of circular, elliptical, or polygonal cross-sectional outline with area from 0.2 m.sup.2 to 1.5 m.sup.2. When used for armor capping each end face is perforated by a number of ducts, the blocks being laid in ordered arrays with close spacing presenting one end face upwardly.

Abstract: In a breakwater which comprises a back wall, and at least one front wall pierced with holes to break up the impact of an incident wave, the improvements are proposed of providing a sloping back wall; of providing convex-concave indentations on the back wall; and of providing partitions to divide up the space between the back wall and the front wall or walls. Various embodiments include an embodiment with two front walls in which the holes in the rearmost front wall are smaller than the holes in the foremost front wall.

Abstract: A breakwater pier apparatus is disclosed in the preferred and illustrated embodiments. The two embodiments utilize a framework floated in the water by buoyant tanks therein, the apparatus including a rearwardly sloping wave energy absorbing wall adapted to float partly underwater and partly above the surface of the water and facing the direction of the wave action, this wave energy absorbing wall being slotted to intercept part of the wave action to create a force tending to hold the breakwater in vertical position. The framework includes an upright wall which also floats partly out of the water. Appended to the wall is a set of floating stub piers for individual boat anchorages. The apparatus is tethered or guided on an upstanding piling.

Abstract: A block of this invention for constructing a breakwater is characterized by having a front wall provided with a horizontal hole, an intermediate wall, a rear wall and a pair of spaced apart longitudinal walls which are disposed perpendicular to the above three walls for integrally connecting the three walls.Due to such construction, when the blocks are stacked up in rows to form a breakwater, the breakwater can have a first chamber which effects the dissipation of wave force and a second chamber which effects the firm integration of blocks along with the packing of a block uniting material therein.

Abstract: A modular unit for erosion control due to wave action is disclosed. The system utilizes a series of symmetrical units linked together to dissipate the kinetic energy of incoming waves. Symmetry of building blocks enables the device to work in any orientation. Energy dissipators on each block allow the wave action to be broken up while allowing passage of water through the unit.