Advanced Breakwater and Causeway Design Concepts

The overall objective of this SBIR is to provide the Sea Base, i.e., a flotilla of ships that may be holding station or slowly transiting an area, with a complete systems concept for a quick-to-establish, low-maintenance, durable system of temporary breakwater. Such a floating breakwater is to enable causeway lighterage, such as the Improved Navy Lighterage System, to interface with ships in the Sea Base in seas up to Sea State 5. The solution envisaged in this study is to use a very large floating mat (VLFM) as a breakwater. The VLFM is not intended to act directly as a causeway, but rather as an environmental shield enabling existing causeway designs to operate under its protection, thus supporting a layered defense approach. This layered defense approach enables the VLFM to be sacrificial during extreme events and repairable in calmer seas thereby protecting sea basing operations inside its protection zone.