User-Friendly Tool to Design Piled-Wharves for the Dynamic Effect of Wave Load

Marine structures are subjected to harsh environmental conditions including wave load. It is common practice to use the Morison equation to obtain the wave force applied to a supporting pile. One of the main assumptions of the Morison equation is a rigid pile, meaning the dynamic response cannot be computed using the Morison equation on its own. The objective of this work is to provide a framework that allows the dynamic pile response to be extracted from the Morison equation through user-friendly design aids. The design aids consist of deformation response curves for a given set of wave characteristics for a specific pile diameter derived using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Deformation response curves express the relationship between static and dynamic responses of a pile for a pre-defined range of equivalent lateral stiffnesses. Static response is obtained by applying the maximum Morison force as a static point load, while the dynamic response is computed through CFD. This work presents the deformation response curve for a circular HSS457 pile that is fixed at its base and pinned at its top. Preliminary findings indicate that the dynamic response is dependent on three parameters, the geometrical properties of the pile, wave characteristics, and the ratio between the water depth and pile length. A case study for utilizing the calibrated tool is demonstrated.