Effect of different reinforcement strategies in cap-pile regions on the lateral bearing performance of a broken wharf in waterway traffic

Abstract

The batter piles of a pile-supported wharf are severely damaged under excessive lateral loads, and effective reinforcement strategies are of great concern. In this paper, the effect of different reinforcement strategies on the lateral bearing performance of the wharf, taking into account the pile-soil interaction, was investigated using centrifuge test and numerical simulation. The results showed that both reinforcement strategies were effective in improving performance, with results generally aligning with those of the intact wharf in terms of load–displacement relationships, and significantly reduced the magnitudes of pile lateral deflection, soil pressure, bending moment, and shear force compared to the broken wharf. However, the concrete jacketing method resulted in larger lateral deflections in the middle sections of the retrofitted batter piles, and then abruptly reduced to match those of the steel-bonding method in the cap-pile regions. The degree of abrupt changes of bending moment in retrofitted batter piles was more distinct in the concrete jacketing wharf than that in the steel-bonding wharf. The steel-bonding method distributed the lateral load more evenly than the concrete jacketing, which involved more abrupt changes in shear forces. Overall, although the performance of both retrofitting methods was slightly better than that of the intact wharf at component level, the steel-bonding method appeared to prove superior due to the smaller change in stiffness and the more even distribution of lateral loads.