Study on the Effect of Impact Load Generated From Pile Driving on Adjacent Berthing Structure

The extension of ports and offshore structures has increased due to feasible marine transportation with more cargoes pouring into the ports across the world. In many ports, there is limited availability of favourable conditions to berth and lack of space for an extension. This leads to the construction of new berthing structures at very close vicinity to existing structures which are aged but significant. One prime concern in such berths is the vibration that will be transmitted to the existing old structure during the construction of the new one. Therefore there is a requirement to keep vibration effects under control to ensure that existing structures remain serviceable. One of the scenarios that determine the intensity of vibration that will be transmitted to soil and adjacent structure is the impact load applied on the pile. In the paper, the study is chosen at a specific port which needs reconstruction and extension due to the change in nature of the cargo to be handled and its requirements and also due to deterioration of aged berthing structure. Therefore, this study aims to find out the effect of impact load that is applied on pile casing during the pile driving process, so that the adjacent structure and machinery can be kept serviceable. The structure, soil medium and pile driving process are modelled in PLAXIS 3D. A damping ratio of 5 percent is assumed for both structure and soil throughout the modelling. A parametric study is done by varying the load on the pile casing while pile driving. The study gives the response of the structure to dynamic loading and influence of load on peak particle velocity during pile driving that gives economical piling and also ensures the safety of the adjacent berthing structure.