Seismic Enhancement of Pile-Supported Wharf Using Tension-Only Cables

Abstract

Pile-supported wharf structures exposed to seismic hazards may suffer severe damage. As such, an effective approach for enhancing the seismic performance of these structures is vital. This study introduces a new retrofitting method, mitigating earthquake-induced damage by fastening the deck of a wharf to the shoreline with an array of tension cables. At first, using the Macro-Simulink model, a parametric study was carried out to assess the contribution of the cable with different stiffness on the seismic response of the wharves. In the parametric study, the seismic performance of a wide range of pile-supported wharves having different periods and levels of hysteretic deterioration is investigated. Maximum and residual deck drifts as well as maximum shear demands on the piles are among the investigated seismic responses. Second, the effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by nonlinear time history analysis of a typical pile-supported wharf. The obtained results indicate that the tension-only cables reduce the maximum and residual deck drift of the pile-supported wharf and significantly decrease the seismic demand on the piles. In the nonlinear time history analysis, with retrofitting section piles performance enhances remarkably with almost all the piles remaining in the elastic zone. Moreover, the contribution of the proposed technique is more pronounced in the case of more vulnerable wharves.