Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

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Developments in the Built Environment

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Experimental study on the damage characteristic and assessment of

transverse bent frame of high-piled wharf under impact load
Yonglai Zheng, Ruxue Zhang *
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Several studies have demonstrated that ship collision is the key reason that leads to the damage of the wharf. In
High-piled wharf order to examine the damage characteristics and assessment method of the bent frame under the impact load, a
Transverse bent model test with four conditions is conducted in this paper. The experimental results highlight that: (1) The
Ship impact
damage of the bent frame promotes the characteristics of three stages: micro-damage appearance, crack devel­
Damage
opment, 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.

1. Introduction mandatory to conduct corresponding research on the damage of

In current cargo transportation, the waterway has become the pri­
mary mode of world cargo transportation due to its advantages of low
cost, long distance, and large transport volume. With the accelerating
demand for international cargo transportation, the trend of large-scale
ships is gaining more demand, and the berthing capacity of the origi­
nally designed wharf is not enough to meet the berthing requirements of
the over-designed ships. Many countries have docks that have been
serving for decades, and these docks have suffered varying degrees of
damage. Located in the complex coastal zone, the damage to the high-
piled wharf mostly comes from the horizontal load, vertical load, and
environmental load that the structure bears. Horizontal loads primarily
include ship berthing loads (Tang et al., 2012), vertical load comprises
stacking cargo, and upper mechanical load and environmental loads are
mainly earthquakes, corrosion (Zhao et al., 2011), waves (Mu et al.,
2020), etc. The damage caused by these loads is manifested in the
reduction of the thickness of the concrete protective layer, the carbon­
ization of the concrete, the exposed corrosion of the steel bar, and the
development of the foundation pile cracks. This helps to reduce the
structural bearing capacity of the wharf, and the dynamic and static
properties are different (Boroschek et al., 2011).To meet the actual
needs of some old wharfs berthing over-designed ship types, quantify the
damage of wharfs, and clear the current health status of wharfs, it is
high-piled wharf bents caused by ship collisions.
The piles are usually placed tens of meters under the soil to hold the
upper load of the wharf. Many scholars have examined the character­
istics of piles under the action of horizontal loads and proposed a
simplified theory of the boundary conditions of pile and soil. Tang (Tang
et al., 2012) conducted numerical studies to conclude that under the
horizontal impact load, the maximum negative bending moment ap­
pears at the top of the inclined pile, and the maximum positive bending
moment is at the junction of the piles and soil. Zhang et al. (2016)
carried out a cyclic loading test on large-diameter rigid piles and
observed that the bending moment of the pile first increased and then
decreased with the depth of burial and the properties of the foundation
soil significantly affected the horizontal bearing capacity of the piles. Qu
et al. (2011) introduced a simplified analysis model of concrete-filled
steel tube (CFST) members under the lateral impact, which provided a
reference for the simplification of impact tests. Ye et al. (2021) examined
the structural performance of the double-inclined piles at different
inclination angles under low-velocity horizontal impact loads. Halder
eta al (Halder et al., 2020).inferred that the horizontal deflection of the
pile is highest at the top of the pile, with the reverse bending point
occurring at a depth of 0.16–0.19 of the pile and zero at the tip of the
pile. Considering the complex interaction of piles and soils, the labora­
tory usually adopts the “m” method to simplify the boundary conditions

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: 1810037@tongji.edu.cn (R. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100124
Received 30 November 2022; Received in revised form 19 January 2023; Accepted 26 January 2023
Available online 27 January 2023
2666-1659/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

of piles and soils. Wang et al. (2020a) proposed the concept of m-value Where m is the mass, c indicates the damping coefficient, k is the stiff­
dynamic-to-static ratio to convert the horizontal impact force into an ness, and y represents the displacement.
equivalent horizontal static load. Numerical simulation is performed to The peak vibration attenuation curve equation of the above equation
verify the accuracy and reliability of the “m” value selected by the can be expressed as Equation (2):
experience and solve the problem that the traditional “m” method is not
y = Ae− ξωn t
(2)
efficient in accurately obtaining the “m” value of the soil around the pile
(Gui et al., 2012).
Where y is the vibration displacement, A denotes the amplitude, ξ is the
Affected by wind and waves, ship berthing is a complex mechanical
damping ratio, and ωn is the frequency.
process that cannot be completely restored with limited test conditions.
The logarithm of the ratio of adjacent peaks can be defined as δ, as
Reasonable simplification of the impact load during the berthing is of
mentioned in Equation (3):
great significance for conducting laboratory tests. From the perspective
( )
of energy conversion, Cai et al. (2018) studied the efficiency of the yk 2πξ
δ = ln = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅2̅ (3)
impact energy converted into the deformation energy of the column. yk+1 1− ξ
Zhu et al. (Zhu et al.Zhang Zhang, 2014)suggested that the impact force
should be equivalent to the static force and proposed that the dynamic Taking the ratio of displacement peaks separated by q cycles,
amplification factor of the impact load should be 2. Wang et al. (2020b) Equation (4) can be determined as follows:
conducted field tests on berthing loads of different types of ships and yi yi yi+1 yi+q− 1
= • • ⋅⋅⋅ • = eqδ (4)
analyzed the relationships of the structural response of the wharf with yi+q yi+1 yi+2 yi+q
the tonnage and berthing speed of the ship. Through finite element
Taking the logarithm of both sides of the equation and calculating
simulation and real ship test, Xie et al. (Xie and Tang, 2013), Xie and
the logarithmic decay rate, Equation (5) can be obtained as follows:
Tang (Xie et al., 2021) introduced the stress-deformation relationship at
( )
the pile head and proposed a new method for the testing of the actual 1 yi
ship striking the high-pile wharf. δ = ln (5)
q yi+q
Structural damage can be divided into two categories: global damage
and local damage. Based on the constitutive model, Ning and Li (2012), Combining Equation (3) and Equation (5), the damping ratio can be
Ren and Li (2015) proposed an extended model of local damage in calculated by Equation (6).
concrete structures. For global damage, Wang and He, 2014, 2017 took a ( )
horizontal load test suggesting that the damage to the piles of the ξ≈
1
ln
yi
(6)
full-straight pile wharf is primarily caused by the structural instability 2π q yi+q
with the plastic damage, and the dynamic response before and after the
Using the above equations to analyze the displacement data obtained
overall damage of the structure can be obtained by multiplying the static
from the experiment, the frequency and damping ratio can be
calculation results of the P–Y curve method by the displacement dy­
determined.
namic amplification factor. Zhang et al. (2019) study reflects that the
reinforced concrete members and nodes in the high-pile wharf exhibit
synchronous mechanical corresponding properties in the time domain. 2.2. Stiffness and Damage
Xie et al. (2017) studied the overall load-displacement law of the wharf
under the impact load and proposed a formula for computing the hori­ Stiffness is one of the fundamental properties of structures. For the
zontal load and displacement of the high-piled wharf. The overall same structure, different damage states may lead to different levels of
damage of the structure can be estimated by the change in parameters. stiffness. Since only the damage state of the entire structure is studied in
Combining the damage and reliability of the wharf, the JC method is this paper, only the overall stiffness is calculated using Equation (7).
used to determine the reliability of the wharf to give the overall damage
degree of the structure based on the characteristic that the horizontal KD =
Fmax
(7)
ultimate bearing capacity of the high-piled wharf under the horizontal xmax
load follows a normal distribution (Wang and Dong, 2021).
Where Fmax denotes the peak impact force and xmax is the peak
Nowadays, many methods of nondestructive testing are used to
displacement of the bent frame.
quantify and locate structural damage (Tejedor et al., 2022a) Tejedor
The damage index D represents the damage degree of the current
et al. (2022b) analyzed and summarized the techniques and methods of
state of the structure relative to the intact state. The value can be
nondestructive test applied in the diagnosis of heritage buildings. To
calculated by Equation (8) as follows:
clarify the dynamic characteristics and horizontal displacement char­
acteristics of the high-piled wharf bent before and after the damage KD
D=1 − (8)
caused by the ship impact and considering the actual ship impact load, a K0
model test of transverse bent frame of the high-piled wharf with simu­
lated impact device is conducted in this paper under four different Where KD is the overall stiffness after damage, and K0 represents the
working conditions. At the end of this paper, test results determine the initial stiffness.
overall displacement of the wharf bent, impact load, and damage are
given. 3. Experimental setup

2. Theory 3.1. Scale factor design

2.1. Vibration theory A single bent frame of a high-piled wharf in Shanghai was selected as
the prototype structure for conducting the experiment mentioned in this
Based on the vibration analysis theory, the damped free vibration paper. The structure is 33.5 m high, 18.0 m long, and 0.9 m wide; the
equation can be expressed as follows: pile is a 0.6 m*0.6 m pre-stressed reinforced concrete square pile, and a
total of six piles are arranged under the bent frame. The beam’s width is
mÿ + cẏ + ky = 0 (1)
0.9 m, and the prefabricated height is 2.4 m; the berth component’s
height is 3.1 m, width is 0.9 m, and length is 1.2 m. The prototype

2
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang
structure is constructed with concrete, with concrete level C30, which
was built in the 1970s. It has been in service for decades, and hence, the
structure’s current level of damage lacks physical verification.
In this paper, the prototype structure was scaled down with reference
to the similarity principle, and an indoor model test was conducted.
Based on the Buckingham π theorem (Antonopoulos et al., 2022; Kenan
and Azeloğlu, 2020), physical parameters are composed of three basic
factors, namely time t (with dimension T), length l (L), and mass m (M).
When selecting length L, Elastic Modulus E, and density ρ as three basic
factors, all the other model parameters can be deduced by incorporating
them with the dimensionless analysis. Considering the structural size
and test conditions comprehensively, the mass density’s similarity ratio
is set to 1, elastic modulus’s similarity ratio is set to 1/5, and geometric
similarity ratio is set to 1/10. Other similitude ratios are deduced and
tabulated in Table 1 (Yue and Zheng, 2019).
3.2. Model structure
Considering the purpose of the experiment, a single bent frame of the
high-piled wharf made of micro-concrete and galvanized steel is
designed and scaled down according to the similarity factor of Section
3.1. Micro-concrete and galvanized steel wire have been widely used in
several model tests (Xiong et al., 2019). Numerous studies have proved
that micro-concrete and galvanized steel wire can simulate concrete and
steel very well (Li et al., 2020; Xie and Sun, 2019; Zhang et al., 2022). By
referring to the previous experiment (Yao et al., 2022), micro-concrete
of grade level C8 is employed in constructing the model structures.
The mixed material proportions of micro concrete are listed in Table 2.
The reinforcement ratio of structure members can be obtained by the
principle of strength equivalence.
Aps fps Ams fms
= (9)
Apc fpc Amc fmc
Where Aps and fps indicate the valid total cross-sectional area and
strength of steel in the prototype structure, respectively, Apc and fpc are
the valid total cross-sectional area and strength of concrete in prototype
structure, respectively, and Ams fms ,and Amc fmc are the related counter­
part’s values of the micro-concrete and galvanized steel.
Through laboratory configuration and measurement, the model
concrete parameters are Emc = 1.5 × 104 N/mm2 , f mc = 8.7N/ mm2 .
According to the principle of equal strength as Equation (9), The
galvanized steel parameters are Ems = 2.06 × 105 N/mm2 , f ms = 4.2 ×
102 N/mm2 .
Once the similarity ratio is determined, the six piles are numbered
from 1# to 6# from the ship-side member to the end of the beam, and
the length of each pile in the model is computed according to the “m”
method mentioned in Section 1. The length of the model pile is enlisted
in Table 3. The same material is used to make the base of the model.
Model making is divided into two stages: binding galvanized steel
wire and pouring micro-concrete, as represented in Fig. 1.
3.3. Test system
Fig. 2 illustrates the complete test system, which consists of a crash
trolley, a slide rail, and a bent frame model.
Table 1
Model similarity ratio.
Physical parameters Similitude relationship Similitude ratios
Stress σ λσ = λE 1/5
Load F λF = λE λ2L 1/500
Displacement δ λδ = λL 1/10
Area A λA = λL 2 1/100
Mass M λM = λρ λ3L 1/1000
Stiffness K 1/50
λK = λE λL
3
Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124
Table 2
Mix proportion for micro-concrete used in the model test.
Grade Portland cement Sand Lime Water
C8 1 6.0 0.6 0.5–0.6
Table 3
Calculated length of model piles (mm).
Pile’s number 1 2 3 4 5 6
Length 1440 1300 1140 1240 980 855
Fig. 3(a) demonstrates the integral bent frame of the wharf. To
restrict the displacement of the base, some steel pipes were set. Fig. 3(b)
highlights the impact system that consists of a hit rail and trolley. The
mass of the trolley is 10 kg, length 200 mm*width 100 mm*height 150
mm. The inner diameter of the slide rail is 120 mm wide, the outer is
140 mm wide, and the height of the side plate is 100 mm. It is made of
galvanized steel plate with a thickness of 10 mm.
Considering the actual project, there will be designed and over­
designed ship berthing. In order to study the damage of high piled wharf
under different impact force, this paper set four different test groups that
are demonstrated in Table 4. The similar results calculated in Table 1
which corresponds to the designed ship’s berthing is named as the hit
group of L-10-10. The groups of L-10-20, L-10-30 and L-10-40 are
considered over designed ship’s berthing. To reduce the test error, the
trolley slid along the rail at the same height and hit the bent frame 99
times. Every three hits were divided into a hit group, and the data of this
group were averaged, and a total of 33 hit groups were obtained.
Different impact groups were named in the L–10–20(1) way. L means
impact load, 10 indicates that the mass of the trolley is 10 kg, 20 denotes
that the sliding height of the trolley is 20 cm, and (1) means the first hit
group under this test group.
3.4. Test equipment
In this test, an LVDT displacement sensor was installed at the end of
the bent frame, as shown in Fig. 4(a). The sampling frequency of the
sensor is 200 Hz, the unit is mm, and the range is 0–100 mm. The height
of the displacement sensor was the same as the height of the impact
point, and the horizontal displacement change of the whole bent frame
was recorded. STB673 impact force sensor was installed in front of the
impact trolley, as represented in Fig. 4(b). It collects the impact force
data during the impact process and plots the force time history curve.
The sampling frequency of the STB673 is 100 Hz, ranging from 0 to
20000 N.
4. Test results and discussion
4.1. Displacement of the structure
The overall displacement of the bent frame of these four groups is
recorded during the test. Choosing the displacement peak value during
the impact process of each working condition, a curve is plotted as
shown in Fig. 5. For the curve of L–10–10, L–10–20, and L–10–30, the
peak displacement of the bent frame demonstrates a phenomenon of
oscillating up and down around the mean value. The peak displacement
curve approximates a horizontal straight line with no prominent in­
crease or decrease. This indicates that under these three working groups,
the bent frame does not undergo any obvious structural damage but may
be minor damage. The peak displacement curve of L–10–40 presented
four stages. In the first stage, from 1st-10th hit groups, the peak
displacement fluctuates up and down at the mean value, which can be
approximated as a straight line; in the second stage, from 11th − 20th hit
groups, the bent frame starts to be damaged, the damage degree
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

Fig. 1. Making model.

Fig. 2. Impact test system.

Fig. 3. Test device.

gradually increases, and the peak displacement increases gradually; in

Table 4
the third stage, from 20th-27th hit groups, the damage and the peak
Test groups (unit: cm).
displacement increases rapidly; the fourth stage, from 28th − 33rd hit
Group 1 2 3 4 groups, the damage and the peak displacement of the bent frame attain a
Height 10 20 30 40 steady state.
As shown in Table 5, the displacement data of representative impact
groups under each test group are selected for analysis.
The displacement curves of the representative group are plotted with
black curve, and the positive displacement peak is fitted by the

4
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

Fig. 4. Test instrument.

while having a minor difference. For the first three hit groups, the period
only increases by 0.0045s and the damping ratio increases 0.001 in
average. Based on the theory of dynamics of structure, natural vibration
period and damping ratio are related to the material, mass, stiffness and
structural form of the structure. It means there is minor damage
happened in these three hit groups. The damage of structure is mainly
manifested as the generation of cracks that causes the decrease of stiff­
ness that leads to the increase of period and damping ratio. In this test,
low growth numbers indicate micro cracks.
For the test group of L-10-40, it can be noticed that the vibration
period and damping ratio of the bent model gradually increase. The
average increase of the period is almost two times as much as the former
group that reaches to 0.035s. The damping ratio of the hit group L-10-40
(23) raised by 0.004 relative to L-10-40(15) and is almost 60% of the L-
10-40(26). It indicates that the damage to the structure goes through
two stages. The first stage is the gradual appearance of micro cracks,
with a slow increase in period and damping ratio. The second stage is
micro cracks coalesce to create macro cracks, especially with a sudden
and large increase in the damping ratio.

4.2. Impact load

Fig. 5. The displacement time-history curves of four test groups.
In this test, using the SBT673 impact force sensor installed at the
front end of the impact trolley, the impact load’s values and curves are
Table 5
recorded and drawn. Similar to Section 4.1, every three strikes are set as
Representative group of each test group.
one hit group. Fig. 7 highlights the curves of the peak impact load of
Test group L-10–10 L-10–20 L-10–30 L-10–40
these four test groups.
Representative group 10 15 6 10 23 26 Observing the four groups of peak impact load curves in the Fig. 7, it
can be observed that the peak value of the impact load under each test
group fluctuates up and down the mean value with no variation in trend.
Exp2PMod1 model in the exponential function based on the theory of
This means there is no correlation between the peak impact load and the
free vibration and plotted with red curve. Fig. 6 represents the curve and
damage degree of the bent frame.
fitting results.
To better analyze the efficiency of converting the gravitational po­
It can be inferred from Fig. 6 that the displacement of the bent frame
tential energy into kinetic energy and then into the maximum defor­
under each test group well exhibits the law of free vibration with
mation energy of the bent frame during the whole test process, the
damping. The curve of displacement in Fig. 6 clearly shows the process
energy conversion rate is defined. The whole impact process can be
of the bent frame being hit by the trolley that can be divided into two
divided into three parts. Firstly, the trolley contacts with the structure
part. The first part is the process of the trolley impact the bent frame that
with maximum speed and no impact force. Secondly, the impact load
the displacement value first increases from 0 to the maximum value. The
attains the maximum value, the speed of the trolley is zero, and the
second part is, under the action of damping, the structure begins to
displacement of the bent frame reaches the maximum value. Finally, the
vibrate spontaneously and the displacement gradually decays from the
structure begins to vibrate and move the trolley in the opposite direc­
maximum value which proves that it is reasonable to fit the curve with
tion. It can be inferred that the gravitational potential energy of the
free vibration theory. The fitted peak displacement curves can display
trolley is converted into the deformation energy of the bent frame and
the vibration attenuation law, and equations can be obtained from it.
the dissipation energy of the system. The calculation method of energy
The vibration period and damping ratio of each hit group are calculated,
conversion rate is given in references (Ye et al., 2021) (Cai et al., 2018),
as mentioned in Table 6.
as shown in Equation (10), the value of the energy conversion rate can
Table 6 displays that, for the group of L–10–10, L–10–20, and
be defined as the ratio of the integral of the impact load and displace­
L–10–30, the vibration period and damping ratio are at the same level
ment to the gravitational potential energy.

5
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

Fig. 6. Displacement curve.

∫ ymax
Fdy
Table 6 ρ= 0
× 100% (10)
Period and damping ratio. mgh

Hit group L-10- L-10–20 L-10- L-10–40 L-10–40 L-10–40 Where y denotes the displacement of the bent frame (m), F is the impact
10(10) (15) 30(6) (10) (23) (26)
load(N), m indicates the mass (kg), g is the gravitational acceleration
Period (s) 0.159 0.162 0.168 0.186 0.207 0.233 (9.8 m/s2), and h is the height (m).
Damping 0.033 0.035 0.036 0.043 0.047 0.079
Taking the mean value of the peak impact load of each group as the
ratio ξ
standard, this section selects one representative hit group of each test
group as mentioned in Table 7. The impact load curves of the repre­
sentative group are represented in Fig. 8.
Table 7 inclines that not all the gravitational potential energy is
converted into deformation energy. With the increase of the sliding
height of the trolley, the rate of the gravitational potential energy of the
system converted into structural deformation energy increases. Low
conversion rate indicates that a large number of energy is dissipated
during the process that the trolley slip from the sliding rail and impact
the bent frame. Comparing the results of references (Ye et al., 2021) (Cai
et al., 2018), it can be found that the energy conversion rate is signifi­
cantly lower than the rate of these two experiments that were complete
horizontal impact. However, in this study, a lateral impact component
was inevitably generated (discussed in detail in section 4.3). Meanwhile,
the friction between the impact trolley and the side wall of the sliding
rail also consumed energy during the falling process. At the same time,
the rate difference in adjacent cases demonstrates that with the increase

Table 7
Peak mean value of impact load and energy conversion rate.
Representative group L-10–10 L-10–20 L-10–30 L-10–40
Fig. 7. Curves of peak impact load. (19) (26) (28) (22)

Mean value of impact load 285 398 500 572

(N)
Energy conversion rate 9.06 9.61 10.55 12.17
(%)
Difference in adjacent rate 0 +0.56 +0.94 +1.62
(%)

6
Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

Fig. 8. Impact force curve. Fig. 9. The curves of the stiffness.

of sliding height, the energy conversion rate grows non-linearly. This excluding outliers, the stiffness values are at the same level, which
paper simply describes the energy conversion rate of this experiment. suggests that the damage does not continue to develop. From the hit
The detailed energy conversion mechanism and characteristics need to group of L–10–40(15) to L–10–40(22), the stiffness decreases rapidly,
be further studied. suggesting that the new micro-cracks appear and form macro-cracks
Fig. 8 represents the change curve of the impact force. In the process with original cracks. From the hit group of L–10–40(23) to L–10–40
of the trolley hitting the bent frame, the impact load undergoes four (33), the stiffness drops sharply, which indicates that one of the com­
stages: increase, decrease, rise to a peak, and fall to zero. This suggests ponents is damaged.
that when the trolley touches and hits the bent frame, the impact load Observing the above four stiffness curves, it can be inferred that in
rises sharply for 20 ms. Because of the elastic effect of the material, the L–10–10 and L–10–20 test groups, the stiffness difference between the
extrusion degree of the impact trolley reduces, so the value of the impact adjacent hit groups is large, and the data exhibits a great dispersion.
load decreases briefly, which takes 10 ms. After that, the trolley con­ While for the group of L–10–30 and L–10–40, except for some abnormal
tinues to strike the bent frame forward, which takes 20 ms until the values, the stiffness curves are relatively smooth. The reason for this
impact load reaches the peak value. Eventually, the impact trolley phenomenon may be the influence of the accuracy of the sensor, and the
gradually moves away from the bent frame, and the impact load de­ small impact load amplifies the influence of the data error, which in­
creases until the trolley moves in the opposite direction without con­ trudes the data with a larger discrete property. But, under the action of a
tacting the bent frame, and the impact load is zero, which takes 40 ms. large impact load, the proportion of data error is so small that the in­
All four groups’ entire impact process last for almost 90 ms. Ignoring the fluence of the error can be ignored.
sudden drop in impact force due to contact conditions, the curves Then, Equation (8) is used to compute the damage index of the
approximate a trend of half-sine curve, which is consistent with the structure. For the group of L–10–10 and L–10–20, the average stiffness is
impact force curve of the actual ship berthing. It can be found that there chosen to be the KD , while for L–10–30 and L–10–40, the KD is the
is no relationship between the peak value and duration of the impact stiffness of the hit group of which the data alters suddenly. The selected
load with the damage status of the bent frame. The duration of impact hit groups, stiffnesses KD , and the calculated damage indexes D and ΔD
force is mainly affected by the condition of the contact. In other words, are listed in Table .8.
the damage state of the structure does not alter the characteristics of the The damage index helps to display the health status of the bent
impact load. frame. It can be inferred from Table 8 that the damage to the structure
shows a gradually increasing trend under the continuous impact of the
load. The damage index of the L–10–20 exhibits that the impact trolley
4.3. Structural damage sliding from the height of 20 cm caused minor damage to the structure.
For the test group of L–10–30, the sliding height is 30 cm, and the index
According to the actual impact process and displacement curve, it of L–10–30(27) is almost 10 times higher than the index of L–10–20,
can be considered that the impact load and the displacement of the bent reaching 0.107. This suggests that severe damage has happened to the
frame achieve the maximum value when the speed of the trolley and the structure, and the capacity of the structure to resist the horizontal
bent frame are both zero. Therefore, the stiffness KD and the damage deformation is reduced by 10 percent. Meanwhile, compared to L–10–30
index D of the bent frame can be calculated by the peak impact load and
the displacement, as shown in Equation (7) and Equation (8) of Section
Table 8
2.2. The undamaged stiffness of the bent frame is K0 = 90774N/ m. The selected hit group, stiffnesses, and calculated damage indexes.
Fig. 9 highlights the stiffness curves of these four test conditions.
Hit group L-10- L-10- L-10- L- L- L- L-
The curve of the L–10–10 indicates that the stiffness of the structure
10 20 30(8) 10–30 10–40 10–40 10–40
oscillates around 90000 N/m, and there is no obvious downward trend, (27) (10) (23) (26)
which suggests that the structure does not have obvious damage. In the
Stiffness 90337 89768 84886 80996 76242 66797 56362
test groups of L–10–20, L–10–30, the stiffness of the structure depicts a KD (N/
trend of gradual decline, indicating that with the increase of the number m)
of hit groups, the stiffness of the bent frame decreases and the structure Damage 0.005 0.011 0.064 0.107 0.16 0.264 0.379
appears micro-damaged. The curve of the L–10–40 can be divided into index D
0 0.006 0.053 0.043 0.053 0.104 0.115
three phases. From the hit group of L–10–40(1) to L–10–40(14),
ΔD

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Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

(8), after eighteen hit groups, the index of L–10–30(27) increases by

0.043. The index of the L–10–40 exhibits a trend of non-linear growth.
The increase in damage index was 0.053, 0.104, and 0.115, respectively.
Typically, at the hit group of L–10–40(26), the damage index was up to
0.379, indicating that the structural capacity of the resisting horizontal
deformation is reduced by 40 percent.
After each hit group, checking the cracks of each pile, and recording
the development process of cracks. For the L-10-20(33) hit group, a 15
mm inclined crack appeared at the bottom of 1# straight pile, as shown
in Fig. 10(a). At the same location, after the L-10-30(11) hit group, the
fracture extended 10 mm diagonally, as shown in Fig. 10(b). This crack
extends from the vertical side of the impact direction to the front side of
the pile. The direction and form of the crack is the same as the cantilever
bending test. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the crack of
1#pile originates from the lateral impact component rather than posi­
tive. This is the reason that the test failed to completely limit the lateral
displacement of the bent, and the trolley inevitably generated a lateral
impact component force, which eventually resulted in a lateral oblique
crack. In the follow-up study, it is necessary to completely limit the Fig. 11. Damage of 4# pile.
lateral impact component or re-study the influence of the lateral impact
component on the damage of wharf shelving. obvious side impact component in the experiment, the inclined crack of
After the L-10-40(11) hit group, the steel bar at the bottom of the 4# 1# straight pile is obviously different from that of 6# straight pile. As a
inclined pile was firstly exposed, and the concrete fracture occurred at result, it is impossible to judge whether the positive impact force first
the connection between the pile and the base, as shown in Fig. 11 (a). caused the damage of pile 1# or pile 6#. This part needs to be improved
For the L-10-40(22) hit group, the damage of the 4# inclined pile ag­ after this test and continued research. However, relative to 2#, 3# and
gravates, as shown in Fig. 11 (b). This indicates that since the 11th group 5# straight piles, 6# pile is damaged first. All straight piles are simpli­
of impact tests, the inclined pile failure began to appear, and the damage fied as cantilever beam with the same deflection at the ends. Based on
degree increased with the increase of the number of impacts. The bent the deflection equation, beams with the same flexural stiffness, material
steel bar shows the oblique pile occurs tensile failure. Mean the while, and interface, the smaller the slenderness ratio, the greater the force
the 4# pile firstly suffers damage means inclined pile bears most of the required to achieve the same deflection. The failure sequence of straight
horizontal impact force in the high piled wharf. This is consistent with piles indicated by this theory is consistent with the experimental results.
the findings of many scholars (Tang et al., 2012) (Ye et al., 2021) (Wang The results show under horizontal impact load, pile foundation failure of
et al., 2020a) (Cai et al., 2018) (Zhu et al.Zhang Zhang, 2014) (Xie et al., high-pile wharf presents a pattern of oblique pile first, then straight pile,
2017). The safety of inclined piles is still a priority in the pile foundation and a trend of failure from short to long straight piles.
of high pile wharf. The above analysis shows that concrete damage of the pile appears in
After the 22nd group of impact, at the same time of plastic hinge of the form of tensile cracks. After the damage of oblique pile, the stress
4# oblique pile, the crack appears on 6# straight pile. The appearance of redistributed on straight piles, while under the same horizontal load,
plastic hinge indicates that the oblique pile loses most of its ability to piles with low flexibility are the first to fail. Mean the while, comparing
resist the horizontal displacement of the structure. Then, internal forces the degree of damage and the process of structural failure, the damage
are redistributed to other straight piles. The damage of 6# pile shows degree based on measured displacement and stiffness can well reflect the
that its internal force is greater than other straight piles and exceeds its health state of the structure, and can identify the time that the damage
ability to resist horizontal displacement, resulting in failure. At the same occurs.
time, it is tensile failure, which is the same with the 4# oblique pile. Not
only that, under 33rd hit group, the concrete tensile crack extends, as 5. Conclusion
shown in Fig. 12, while other straight piles remained undamaged.
It can be seen from the above results that the inclined pile bears more In this paper, the damage characteristics of the bent frame of a high-
horizontal force due to its special inclination, so it suffers the damage piled wharf under different impact loads are examined through simu­
first, then the straight piles. Among the straight piles, both 1# and 6# lated impact tests. The test results are used to analyze the characteristics
straight piles were damaged during the impact test. Because of the

Fig. 10. Damage of 1#pile.

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Y. Zheng and R. Zhang Developments in the Built Environment 14 (2023) 100124

Fig. 12. Damage of 6# pile.

of displacement response before and after the damage to the bent frame, proposed index of structural damage degree can be used to
and the characteristics of the impact load acting on the structure are evaluate structural health state.
analyzed. Moreover, the stiffness and damage index of the bent frame is (5) Under the action of a single load, the damage degree of the bent
discussed by combining the displacement and impact load data. The key frame gradually increases, causing the structural capacity of
conclusions of this paper are as follows: resisting horizontal deformation to decrease, but a sudden load
increase will sharply increase the damage degree of the structure
(1) Comparing with the former researches, this model test shows that and endanger the safety of the wharf. Therefore, in the produc­
the horizontal displacement of the bent frame can well reflect its tion operation of the terminal, it is necessary to focus on pre­
performance with different impact force, rather than only venting over-designing of the ship berthing.
considering dynamic amplification effect. Through the change of
the peak displacement, it can be concluded that the damage of the CRediT authorship contribution statement
bent frame goes through three stages: the appearance of micro-
damage, the accumulation of micro-damage, and the formation Ruxue Zhang Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation,
of macro-cracks, and the surge of damage. Formal analysis, Validation, Writing original draft. Yonglai Zheng:
(2) In this paper, two important parameters in structural dynamics, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-review & editing,
natural vibration period and damping ratio, are adopted. These Supervision.
two parameters are helpful to understand the effect of structural
damage on its dynamic characteristics. The analysis shows that Declaration of competing interest
the damage will cause an increase in the vibration period and
damping ratio of the bent frame. However, the vibration period of The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
the bent frame based on the first crest is not sensitive enough to interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
damage. The damping ratio changes a little with micro-damage, the work reported in this paper.
but large with severe damage. So the damping ratio can be
considered as a discriminant index for judging severe damage Data availability
caused by accidental events.
(3) Scholars try to find the difference of the impact load between the Data will be made available on request.
damage and undamaged of structure. The model test shows the
change of the impact load is not sensitive to the damage status of Acknowledgement
the bent frame, so it is not recommended to be used as a damage
discrimination index. But, the energy conversion rate that can be This work was supported by the major projects of Science and
easily measured in the actual high-piled wharf can describe the Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, China
process of structural damage. [17DZ1202904].
(4) Due to the limitation that traditional sensors are not suitable for
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