Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Research on Numerical Simulation of Wave Forces on the Pile Group Foundation of Sea-crossing Bridges
Rong XIAN, Junhao TONG, Zuolei YANG
Guangdong Provincial Highway Construction Corporation，Guangzhou，China.
Huangmaohai Link Administration Centre，Zhuhai，China.
CCCC Highway Bridges National Engineering Research Centre CO., Ltd.，Beijing, China.

pile group foundation can provide a reference for the optimal design ofthe pile group foundation of the long-span sea-crossing bridge and thesimplified calculation of the wave forces on the pile group foundation.

ABSTRACTTaking the Huangmaohai bridge as background, the open source
platform was used to establish the models for calculating the wave
forces on the pile group foundation. The research results show that thewave period, water depth and forward flow all have a significant
influence on wave forces on the pier group foundation and theattenuation effect of the cap pier on the horizontal wave force on thepile group, and the horizontal wave force on each single pile in the pilegroup is obviously different. The results can provide a reference for thesimplified calculation of wave forces on the pile group foundation in
the design of sea-crossing bridge engineering.

In this paper, taking the Huangmaohai bridge as background, thenumerical models for calculating the wave forces on the single pile,single pile group and pile group foundation are stablished. Study on theinfluence of water depth, wave period and forward flow on wave forceson the pile group foundation, the attenuation effect of the large-scalecap on wave forces on the pile group, and the distribution of waveforces on each single pile in the pile group.

THE SETUP AND VALIDATION OF MODEL
KEY WORDS: Pile group foundation; pile cap; pile group; the single
independent pile; wave forces; numerical simulation.

Calculation model

INTRODUCTION

The open source platform was used to establish the models forcalculating the wave forces on the pile group foundation. Thepile group foundation is composed of pier cap, pile group, towerbase and tower column. The pier cap of the pile group foundation

In recent years, the bridge construction in China has graduallydeveloped from land to sea. Compared with bridges spanning land andrivers, the sea-crossing bridges are often on the sites where the flow is
deep and rapid, and wave forces have a great impact on the design andconstruction of cross-sea bridges (Fang C, Li Y and Qin S, 2016). Pile
group foundation is one of the commonly used foundation forms ofbridges across rivers and seas in China (Guo Z, 2007). In the stage ofthe construction of substructures of bridges, the pile structure has alarge flexibility and can withstand continuous and high-strength wave
forces (Eicher J, Guan H and Jeng D, 2003). Besides, wave forces onpile group foundation are very different from that of single piles(Sawicki A, 2008). In the past, researchers from different countries haveconducted extensive discussions on the wave forces on the pile groups
foundation. Liu (2014) studied the mechanical properties of pile group
foundation with high pile cap under the wave. Zhang (2012) studied on
numerical simulation of the wave forces on small-scale double-pierstructures. Wang (2010) discussed the nonlinear characteristics of pilegroup foundation under the wave. However, at present, thedetermination of the pile distance and the pile arrangement method of
the pile group foundation in the project is still based on experience, andthere is no perfect and unified design principle. Therefore, the analysis
and research of the wave force on the whole and local structure of themodel is an elliptical column cap of 51 m ×40 m ×8.5 m, and the pilegroup composed of 40 cylinders with a diameter of 3 m. The geometricmodel and detailed sizes of the pile group foundation are shown in
Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The sketch of the pile group foundation (unit: cm)

2220