Pile-Supported Wharves Subjected to Inertial Loads and Lateral Ground Deformations. II: Guidelines for Equivalent Static Analysis

Abstract

An equivalent static analysis (ESA) procedure is proposed for the design of pile-supported wharves subjected to combined inertial and kinematic loads during earthquakes. The accuracy of the ESA procedure was evaluated against measurements from five large-scale centrifuge tests. The wharf structures in these tests were subjected to a suite of recorded ground motions and the associated superstructure inertia, as well as earthquake-induced slope deformations of varying magnitudes. It is shown that large bending moments at depths greater than 10 pile diameters were primarily induced by kinematic demands and can be estimated by applying soil displacements only (i.e., 100% kinematic). In contrast, the large bending moments at the pile head are primarily induced by wharf deck inertia and can be estimated by applying superstructure inertial loads at the pile head only (i.e., 100% inertial). Large bending moments at depths shallower than 10 pile diameters are affected by both inertial and kinematic loads; therefore, evaluation of pile performance should include soil displacements and a portion of the peak inertial load at the pile head that coincides with the peak kinematic loads. Ranges for inertial and kinematic load combinations in uncoupled analyses are provided for different soil profiles. The details on the back-calculated load combination factors are provided in the companion paper.