Assessment Of Wave Loads On Bridge Piers Using Physical And Numerical Modelling

Abstract

The deep-water commercial port to be built, object of this paper, is an island port which will be served by a sea access bridge supported by piles. These piles are submitted to three types of forces: inertia forces, drag forces and wave breaking forces. As the first two type can be accurately approximated theoretically, the third one is highly dependent of the wave shape in the vicinity of the pile. As a consequence, in order to determine the hydrodynamic forces on the various piles of this bridge, a three-stages methodology was set up. An analysis of the loads was first carried out theoretically, the second stage consisted in carrying out physical model tests for a selected pile and in a third stage a numerical model was used. The paper will discuss the means and programme of the tests, and in particular the selection of characteristic waves and the results obtained.