Physical model tests have been performed to study static stability of rock-armoured mild slopes. Current stability design formulae for steeper rock-armoured slopes focus on plunging and surging waves. Slopes of 1:6 and milder usually have more spilling breakers which decreases the load. Also, on mild slopes displaced rocks more often remain present in the wave attack zone, which increases the strength. These aspects lead to an overdesigned structure when existing formulae for steep rock-armoured slopes are used. The present wave flume tests were used to understand the processes and develop a design formula for rock-armoured mild slopes with an impermeable core. These tests were performed for statically stable rock-armoured slopes of 1:6 to 1:10. The tests confirmed that not all existing damage parameters are able to accurately describe the static stability on milder slopes. For mild slopes it is more accurate to describe the damage based on the eroded depth rather than on the eroded area or number of moved stones. In this study, a design formula and guidelines are provided for practicing engineers that design or evaluate the stability of mild rock-armoured slopes.

The stability of rock slopes under wave attack is addressed in this paper. Physical model tests have been conducted and analysed to obtain information on how to apply design formulae for conditions including situations in which wave breaking occurs on shallow foreshores. The analysis is based on tests on structures with a 1:100 foreshore and a 1:30 foreshore. It has been found that especially for applications with shallow foreshores the formulae by Van der Meer (1988) can better be applied a) by using the spectral wave period T _m-1,0 instead of the mean wave period T_m from time-domain analysis, b) by re-calibrating the coefficients, and c) by adapting the confidence levels. In addition, an alternative formula has been developed that, although it is simple, leads to the same accuracy for the more than 200 test conditions studied here.