Tsolating a Wharf Using Sliding Friction Isolators at the Port of Los Angeles Robert Zmuda, P.E., Member! Max Weismair, $.E., Member? Marc Caspe, S.E.,' Member? l¢ massive wharf deck can induce long support piles. Isolation technology should the piles to withstand a Maximum Credible Earthquake having a frequency of recurrence of 2400-years, ut structural damage or equipment damage. SS are firmly rooted in the grip of the soil, they Plicate the motion of the ground. gé or collapse. Sliding-friction isolators t Berth 136 to reduce this force to 1/10th its ‘Gee 3 0W/0.10W = a 30 times force reduction), the blow in much the same way a boxer does when “ngineer, Port of Los Angeles, P.O. Box 151, ©, CA 90733-0151 al Engineer, Port of Los Angeles, P.o, Box 151, , CA 90733-0151 “Marc S. Caspe Co., 8121 w Manchester Ave. 4619, eles, ca 90293 12631264 PORTS 95 a punch is coming towards his chin, by falling back putting distance between the blow and its target. Sliding- friction isolators work in accordance with 200- eld technology, developed by a French physicist Coulomb. They create four physical barriers that pre damage to both the deck and its support pilings, follows: e@ A "Force Barrier" that limits an earthquake’s horizont; friction forces to a calibrated value: 1. Well above the horizontal forces exerted by accident berthing; and, 2. Well below the earthquake forces that otherwise indu damage to decks or support pilings (see Figure 1), ean "Energy Barrier" that throws off an earthqua energy by friction rubbing, turning it into a he discharge to the surrounding air without any part of | BASE ISOLATING WHARF friction system breaking or rupturing. A 180 mm h: assemblage of sliding-friction plates is a far stable way to rid the enormous energy of an earthq than the traditional method of designing for hea me due to bending at the top and bottom of support pile: © A "Vibration Barrier" that prevents seismic vibratio from tuning in and causing a resonant build-up horizontal force in the structure. This is blocked the random nature of the sliding action, both in durat and direction. It is similar to soldiers marching acros} a bridge out of cadence (i.e., random stepping force: @ A "Displacement Barrier" of soft springs (See K2 0 Figure 1) that continually exert a biasing force to pu: the deck back to its initial position on the pilings. Berth 136, the vertical piles serve this function. So springs exert a small recentering force to virtuall eliminate residual displacement at the end of earthquake. Cushioned limit-stop springs also engage a specific distance, acting as a back-up system. (See on Figure 1.) REDUNDANT BACK-UP Discussi A plan view of Berth 136 is shown on Figure 2. It consist: of a 4,300 sq m concrete wharf deck supported by 46 stl pipe batter-pile pairs (600 mm diameter) along rows B, Cy I and J, and 147 octagonal pre-stressed concrete vertical piles (600 mm width). Half the batter-piles are orient at right-angles to the other half, thereby stabilizing on another by force transfer through a pile cap. The vertical piles are conventionally connected to the deck with bending A “2 Po ~e cm . 4 ~y BE ye a5 of 8 gz \ i 1 1 11 yg re el fe | ge 1 ge : g |) sisB |g 2 i ie f is ' a ! 3 MY age 3OYO4 TWINOZINOH LOL FIGURE 1 Lo wy DUCTILITY RATIO: 1265 25mm ‘Somm ‘APPROX. DEFLECTION: HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT12 % 66 PORTS "95 BASE ISOLATING WHARF 1267 continuity. These act as both vertical supports and orizontal elastic springs, returning the deck to its jnitial position on the sliding-friction isolators. a section of the pile cap and wharf deck is shown on Figure 3. The circular pedestal on top of each batter-pile ir acts to integrally tie each pair together in a punching shear zone. It also serves as the sliding- friction isolator’s support pad and the K3 limit-stop’s thrust block, as shown in Figure 3. petails of the slidng-friction isolators are shown in plan and section on Figure 4. Because only one-fifth of the wharf deck’s vertical weight is supported by the sliding- friction isolators and because the coefficient-of-friction for teflon on stainless steel is limited to under 0.24, it was necessary to use 5 friction surfaces at each batter- pile support to attain the desired friction coefficient of 0.70 (i.e., 5 x 0.14 = 0.70). This was done by utilizing 5 sliding surfaces at each batter-pile support. These are shown in Figure 4 with the stainless steel plates extending parallel to the nearby Palos Verdes fault and the telfon ‘plates extending perpendicular to that fault. The stainless steel plates are enlarged by 150 mm, to accommodate any strike-slip motion from the nearby Palos Verdes fault. At marine facilities in which all the piles have sliding- j friction isolators at the top, this multiplication of the friction coefficient is not needed. A one-level sliding- friction isolator could be used at the top of each vertical steel pile, similar to the configuration used at buildings and bridges. This configuration is appropriate for deep water structures without batter-piles. WHARF EXTENSION ritea hse nas To best understand how sliding-friction isolators prevent damage to structures, picture the difference between Springs and dampers. Everyone intuitively knows how a Spring works. We have all handled simple springs such as Paper clips that can be tweaked, only to have them spring back to their original position. Dampers, however, have a Mystique about them, though they are no more complex. Sliding-friction dampers are made of small teflon lined Steel pads, in contact with a much larger stainless steel Plate. If such slide plates were installed between the Wharf deck and all its support pilings, an earthquake Could cause the pilings to slide beneath the deck a few Centimeters horizontally. This would happen as soon as the Calibrated break-away friction force level was reached. t’s how simple a damper is. Over 200 years ago, Coulomb proved the horizontal force