BREAKWATERS

THE FOUNDATION FOR A
SAFE PORT

A breakwater is a protection for a harbour. It may be subjected to excessive force when any storm or hurricane strikes a port. SF Marina floating breakwaters have been tested live and in full scale by a hundred years of storms, hurricanes and typhoons. Since the first floating breakwater was installed almost 40 years ago, SF Marina has installed floating breakwaters in a wide variety of sites often exposed to adverse conditions, in all climate zones and extreme locations. Our floating breakwater range has been severely tested, and from these occasions we study, learn and improve our technology. Each breakwater is unique and therefore each pontoon is custom built only after the client has approved the drawing, called a “shop drawing”, which means that our customers get their pontoons built according to their specifications.

WHY BREAKWATERS

It is with great pride that we present our current breakwater range. It is the sum of all experience we have gathered from the first breakwater installation. Our confidence in our breakwaters comes from knowing that our floating breakwater range has and is being tested every day and from these occasions we study, learn and improve our technology.

SF Marina floating breakwaters have been tested to the very limits by bespoke storms, hurricanes and typhoons in all parts of the world. Since the first floating breakwater was installed almost 40 years ago, SF Marina has installed floating breakwaters in a wide variety of sites exposed to harsh conditions, in deep and shallow waters and in all climate zones imaginable.

SF Marina delivers a complete range of floating concrete breakwaters with widths from 3 meters to 10 meters. Our design team will assist you in designing the correct breakwater configuration for your location as well as engineering a reliable and cost efficient anchoring plan for your breakwater.

SF Marina breakwaters are designed for lowest possible maintenance cost, with easily accessible inspection points, easy to replace connector wires and stainless females and bolts.

OUR 3 CORE PREMISES FOR FLOATING BREAKWATERS

All concrete pontoons will attenuate waves, but it is very important to distinguish between a floating breakwater and a concrete pontoon. Floating breakwaters and concrete pontoons differ significantly in all the three vital criteria: strength of reinforcement, strength of connectors and anchoring. A normal pontoon will mainly handle forces from direct loads and wind forces. A breakwater is designed to restrain the movement of the floating breakwater elements it is connected to.

When it does this the wave is efficiently attenuated and the energy from the wave is converted into motion energy of the breakwater. When wave energy exceeds the maximum of what the breakwater can absorb, the breakwater must be designed so that it allows for excess energy to pass through without damaging the breakwater. This, since survival mode design is of paramount importance when building floating breakwaters. It is no co-incidence that

SF Marina’s rugged floating breakwaters enjoy a worldwide recognition. This is important, since survival mode design is of paramount importance when building floating breakwaters. It is no coincidence that SF Marina’s rugged floating breakwaters enjoy worldwide recognition. Our whole concept of floating breakwaters is built on three premises:

  1. Strong reinforcement around the mooring-rings. Our mooring-rings are reinforced in such a manner that the entire breakwater can be lifted by a single ring.
  2. Our coupling system consisting of access wells with heavy steel plates, stainless steel cut-outs, coupling wires packed in anti-corrosive grease and heavy rubber cylinders. The coupling system is also so versatile that we can make use of centre couplings, to eliminate torsional loads on longer piers or sections used to build specific angle solutions.
  3. Our mooring technique which is based on an anchoring system using heavy chains and concrete anchors. The chain is coupled to the pontoon mooring-rings with shackles and a “bridle ring” as shown below. It is clear from the diagram below, when forces on the chain increase as the coupling gets pulled downwards under load, the total force at the “bridle ring” causes the pontoons to be pulled together, while still kept safely apart by the rubber cylinders. The more the wind blows, the more the pontoons get pulled together.

Our range of breakwaters

Projects with breakwaters