Some issues in seismic analysis and design of blockwork wharves

During past decades, a number of ports worldwide have suffered extensive earthquake-related damage. As seaports play a key role in the world's economy, their seismic performance should be enhanced, clearly stated and reliably pursued by designers. This work focuses on seismic vulnerability of wharves in Italy. According to a recently carried out statistical study, most of the existing wharves are gravity-type, made of superimposed, dry-connected blocks, particularly in older facilities. Such technology is widely in use worldwide but it has not attracted much research interest so far. In the present study, the validity of current, simplified design approaches has been investigated by comparison with the results of inelastic dynamic time-history analyses. Permanent displacements of the wall blocks have been calculated. Available performance criteria have been reviewed. A real wharf structure in the Port of Ancona (Italy) has been studied in depth, as a methodological example. For such structure, a parametric study has been conducted with the aim of investigating the role played by different design parameters and to assess the validity of the widely in use pseudo-static method.