Experimental study on the method of estimating the vertical design wave force acting on a submerged dual horizontal plate

ABSTRACTA steel-type breakwater that uses a submerged dual horizontal porous plate was originally proposed by Kweon et al. (2005), and its hydrodynamic characteristics and design methodology were investigated in a series of subsequent researches. In particular, Kweon et al. (2011) proposed a method of estimating the vertical uplift force that acts on the horizontal plate, applicable to the design of the pile uplift drag force. However, the difference between the method proposed by Kweon et al. (2011), and the wave force measured at a different time without a phase difference, have not yet been clearly analyzed. In this study, such difference according to the method of estimating the wave force was analyzed, by measuring the wave pressure acting on a breakwater model. The hydraulic model test was conducted in a two-dimensional wave flume of 60.0 m length, 1.5 m height and 1.0 m width. The steepness range of the selected waves is 0.01~0.03, with regular and random signals. 20 pressure gauges were used for the measurement. The analysis results showed that the wave force estimate in the method of Kweon et al. (2011) was smaller than the wave force calculated from the maximum pressure at individual points, under a random wave action. Meanwhile, the method of Goda (1974) that was applied to the horizontal plate produced a smaller wave force, than the method of Kweon et al. (2011). The method of Kweon (2011) was already verified in the real sea test of Kweon et al. (2012), where the safety factor of the pile uplift force was found to be greater than 2.0. Based on these results, it was concluded that the method of estimating the wave force by Kweon et al. (2011) can be satisfactorily used for estimating the uplift force of a pile.