Physical modelling tests were conducted in a wave flume of Artelia's hydraulic laboratory to study the hydraulic response/stability of a rubble mound breakwater with non-standard core composed of crushed concrete blocks. This design carried out by EDF was initiated in response to develop a high permeability breakwater and to follow an eco-design approach with the reuse of materials. 
The hydraulic response of three different typical sections were tested and compared; all the sections had the same armour layer but were composed with different core and filter layers, i.e. core made with crushed concrete blocks only, core and underlayer made with such crushed blocks and quarry run core with rock underlayer. 
Several responses were studied: armour layer stability, overtopping, transmission and reflection of the structure and head loss on both sides of the structure.
This case study also illustrated the importance of the physical modelling approach to testing atypical structure.

With the increase in storminess due to climate change induced sea level rise, coastal protection solutions need to be able to contend with larger storms, resulting in larger incident waves, on a more regular basis. Many traditional coastal protection systems like vertical seawalls are proving to be expensive to design for the increased overtopping associated with this change in coastal conditions. As such, there is a rapidly growing need to develop novel and innovative design solutions to replace traditional coastal defences such as vertical seawalls. By looking at the lessons learned from three projects (Dawlish, MOG2 and CASINO), it is proposed that the use of physical modelling to inform design is a solution to the problem presented by the lack of guidelines applicable to the rapidly changing field of coastal structures design. 

Higher design waves and water levels, including the effects of sea level rise, present determining loads for drawing up the strength and stability of the discharge sluices in the Afsluitdijk. One of these loads is the wave impact load on the gates, supporting beams and bridge decks. At first, these loads have been calculated using a design approach which has been based on analytical models. It showed that these loads due to vertical wave impacts can be higher than the strength of the gates and the existing bridge decks. Therefore, load reduction measures are required. To better predict the wave impact loads, which strongly depend on the configuration of the gates and decks, a physical model study in a wave flume has been carried out at Deltares. In the model tests very high forces were measured due to wave impacts on the decks and the gates of the discharge channel.

Two unique physical models of vegetated channels were executed to investigate flow exchange near vegetation: a small-scale experiment at TU Delft Water Lab and a large-scale experiment at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology - River Experiment Center (KICT-REC). These experiments, conducted with and without vegetation, were complemented by numerical models constructed using Delft3D, calibrated and validated using collected data. Notably, the experiments revealed organized large-scale vortex structures moving along vegetation edges. In the small-scale flume, the longitudinal height of these structures measured around 1.2 m, while in the large-scale model, it extended up to 15 m. The penetration of these structures into vegetation regions ranged from about 10 cm to 2 m in the small-scale and large-scale cases, respectively.