Seismic Design Of Piers And Wharfs: A Capstone Course Application Of A New Standard For Designing Port Structures In The United States

Pier and wharf structures are governed by the International Building Code 1 if and only if the pier and wharf structure provides the foundation for a building with public occupancy. Otherwise, the design is outside the scope of the aforementioned document. A uniformly recognized standard has never been available to engineers and most engineers reference various documents including building codes for lateral loads, bridge standards for truck traffic, and marine oil terminal documents for special provisions when designing such structures. ASCE is in the final phases of the development of the first national standard for the seismic design of pier and wharf structures. This paper presents the background information behind the document’s development. As part of a structural engineering capstone course at The Citadel, students are designing a pier structure to meet the requirements of the new national standard and the steps of the design are presented as a case study application. In addition, multidisciplinary student work that includes environmental concerns relevant to marine oil terminals is also presented.