On the seismic performance of block type quay walls: Numerical analyses against 1g shaking tank tests

Up to date national and international codes and standards recommends the performance-based design to better estimate the seismic response of the gravity type quay walls. Advances in computer-based solutions paved the way for numerical studies and important developments have been achieved in several commercial computer programs some of which are used for the seismic analysis of gravity type quay walls. Experimental and/or numerical research have been conducted to provide an understanding of the vulnerability of these structures, however, only a few are devoted to the seismic performance of block type quay walls. In this study, a two-dimensional (2D) finite element analysis was performed to simulate the seismic response of three different block type quay walls. A vertical wall and two recently invented hunchbacked walls, namely: first type hunchbacked wall (FHW) with a larger hunch and second type hunchbacked wall (SHW) with a smaller hunch were used in analyses. The calibrated numerical models were used to predict the seismic behaviour of the walls, and the computed horizontal displacements were compared against measured data. In general, the computed response was found to be in satisfactory agreement with the experimental produced one. It was found that the first type hunchbacked wall exhibited the most satisfactory performance compared to the performance of the other studied wall types. The main reason for this is the lower centre of gravity (compared to that of the other walls), resulting in smaller inertia-driven overturning moments at the wall base and therefore smaller rotation-induced horizontal displacements. The worst performance was observed in the vertical wall due to the mobilization of smaller shaft and base shear resistances. The observations were supported by both the numerical and the experimental results.