Lateral Load Analysis of Waterfront Structures Supported on Plumb Piles

Abstract eng:
Analysis of wharves/piers under lateral loads is often conducted by assuming the piles to be fully restrained at a presumed distance below the mudline. Once a reasonable point of fixity for each pile is estimated, the wharf/pier is modeled as a one-story structure comprising a slab supported by columns of different heights that are fully restrained at their bases. Strictly, this simplified approach is valid only if the response of both the soil and the piles are linear because the location of the point of fixity varies as the pile and/or the supporting soil softens with increase in lateral displacements. However, representing the flexibility of the supporting soil by assuming the piles to be restrained at invariable points of fixity may produce plausible results in relation to elaborate analysis methods. In this paper, case study of a marginal wharf structure supported on plumb piles is presented. The lateral resistance of the wharf computed from static lateral load (pushover) analysis was compared with the demand estimated using low to moderate seismic design spectra. It was demonstrated that, for the earthquake demands considered, modeling the soil-pile support by using points of fixity instead of a coupled nonlinear system leads to overestimation of the lateral displacement demand by only 20 percent.

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