Pushover Analysis of Pile-Supported Wharf Structure in Visakhapatnam (India)

Abstract

Wharfs and jetties are the key structures in port transportation systems that support export and import activities. Wharf structures during a seismic event are susceptible to severe damage and may have an adverse effect on port operations. Historical earthquakes such as 1995 Kobe earthquake (Mw = 6.9; Japan) Chang [1], 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw = 7.3; Taiwan), 2004 the Great Indian Ocean earthquake (Mw = 9.1; Sumatra) and Haiti earthquake (2010) DesRoches [2] damaged major port structures, such as caissons, quays and pile-supported wharfs [3]. These ports suffered severe economic losses due to the collapse of wharfs leading to downtime in port operations. This attracted the attention of researchers towards seismic analysis and design of port structures, especially pile-supported wharfs. In the present study, a wharf structure from Vishakhapatnam port (Andhra Pradesh, India) has been chosen for pushover analysis. For the structural model of the pile-supported wharf considered, shell elements were used for modelling the deck. Winkler model has been used for representation of the pile–soil system, in which the piles were represented by beam elements and soils were represented by springs. Pushover analysis has been carried out with distribution of lateral loads according to the fundamental modal shape of the wharf structure to derive the capacity curve of the wharf structure. Capacity spectrum method which is a nonlinear static procedure has been used to efficiently construct a response matrix of the wharf. Nonlinear static pushover analysis has been performed, and it has been observed that the hinge sequence obtained for the wharf in transverse direction in the present study matches with the guidelines provided in PIANC [4]. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.