Developing the estimations of wave forces, moments and force-impulses on the vertical wall with overhanging slab

Abstract

Marine structures with the hybrid form of the vertical wall with overhanging slab are increasingly used. Yet seldom study focuses on the estimations of the wave force, moment and force-impulse on such structure, which are of importance to assess the structural stability and safety. Based on the physical experiments, the influences of the wave condition and structural geometry characteristic on the wave loads are investigated. It finds the approximately linear increase in the impulsive force, quasi-static force, moment and force-impulse as the incident wave height increases. When the normalized structural clearance c/Hs increases, the uplift and horizontal impulsive forces and the induced moments tend to firstly increase and then decrease, reaching to the peaks at about c/Hs = 0.2. With the ratio of wave length to slab length L/w raises, the uplift impulsive force and moment increase whereas the horizontal impulsive force and moment decrease. Finally, a series of empirical formulas are developed to account for the combined effects of the wave condition and the structure geometry property on the wave loads of the vertical wall with overhanging slab. This study contributes to understanding how different factors quantitatively affect the wave impacts on the vertical wall with overhang slab.