Experimental study on the damage characteristic and assessment of transverse bent frame of high-piled wharf under impact load

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated that ship collision is the key reason that leads to the damage of the wharf. In order to examine the damage characteristics and assessment method of the bent frame under the impact load, a model test with four conditions is conducted in this paper. The experimental results highlight that: (1) The damage of the bent frame promotes the characteristics of three stages: micro-damage appearance, crack development, crack penetration; (2) The aggravation of the overall damage of the bent frame results in an increase in the frequency and damping ratio of the structure, but they are not sensitive to low damage; (3) The efficiency of converting kinetic energy into structural deformation energy increases with higher impact energy; (4) Damage degree is a discriminating index of the bent frame performance can represent the current health status of the structure.