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

Numerical study on the bridge deck responses under solitary waves
Chengzhe Zhang b, c, d, Dawei You *, a, e , Hao Qin *, b, c, dSouth China Sea Information Center of State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou, Chinab
College of Marine Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
c Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Chinad Shenzhen Research Institute, China University of Geosciences, Shenzhen, Chinae
Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Survey Technology and Application, Ministry of Natural Resources,Guangzhou, ChinaaABSTRACT(2014) performed a series of laboratory experiments and CFD
calculations to study the horizontal and vertical forces on a twodimensional horizontal plate due to solitary waves. Xu et al. (2017)
measured the solitary wave load and predicted the solitary wave forceson a typical coastal bridge deck with girders by numerical method.
Huang et al. (2018) studied the effects of solitary wave load on verticaland overhanging near-coast structures. Zhu et al. (2020) investigated
the solitary wave-induced vertical and horizontal forces on coastal
bridges by laboratory experiments as well as numerical simulations.

Coastal bridges are constantly threatened by tsunami waves. In 2011,
the tsunami occurred off Japan flooded the coastline and destroyed over
300 bridges. In order to better understand the failure mode of the bridge,
wave forces and structural responses of a box girder bridge under atsunami wave simplified by a solitary wave are studied in this paper.
Simulations on wave-deck interaction are conducted using CFD
methods, the results from which are further applied on a FEM model toobtain stress distribution and deformation of the bridge. Special
attention is paid to the bridge bearings from a structural viewpoint.

KEY WORDS:

Structural response.

On the structural response of bridges under wave impact, Chen al.
(2014) studied the structural dynamic characteristics and dynamic
response of T-girder bridge under solitary wave load at different
heights. Kang et al. (2015) used immersed boundary method tosimulate the structural response of piers under different submergence.
Xu et al. (2017) studied the structural response of the bridge undersolitary wave load and significantly reduced the uplift force by setting
air venting holes. Fang et al. (2020) simulated the structural response ofa cable-stayed bridge under waves using different surrogate models. Xuet al. (2021) studied the structural response of a reinforced concrete(RC) box girder bridge under earthquake-tsunami sequential events,and carried out probabilistic fragility analysis.

Solitary wave; Wave force; Bridge bearings;

INTRODUCTION
Tsunami is a giant wave created by the undersea earthquake, platemovement or landslide. In recent years, the tsunami has caused serious
damage to coastal bridges in many coastal countries. The main reason
is that the huge force of tsunami wave on the bridge deck exceeded thedesigned load-bearing capacity of the bridge, resulting in thedestruction of the bridge structure.

Although many valuable results have been achieved in themeasurement of solitary wave load and the structural response ofbridges under solitary waves, most of the current studies focus on thestructural response of piers under solitary wave load, therefore there isstill a lack of research on the mechanism of bridge failure under greatwaves. In order to better understand the failure mode of the bridge,
wave forces and structural responses of a box girder bridge under atsunami wave simplified by a solitary wave are studied in this paper.
Firstly, a numerical tank is established by using a N-S solver in thispaper to generate a solitary wave and measure the wave load. Secondly,a finite element model of the bridge structure including the deckbearings are built, on which the solitary wave forces are applied tostructural response of the bridge structures. Finally, stress anddeformation of the bridge structure under the solitary wave load are
obtained and analyzed, with special focus on the response of thebearings between the deck and piers. It is concluded that the main

After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, there was anupsurge of tsunami research in the world, among which solitary waves
are usually used to simulate tsunami-like waves. For example, Ren et al.
(2017) compared the numerical characteristics of solitary wave andtsunami-like wave hydrodynamic. Jiang et al. (2017) carried out anumerical study on the interaction between tsunami-like solitary waves
and seawalls. Yao et al. (2018) used solitary waves to simulate tsunami
waves and carried out a series of experiments in the laboratory flume to
study the variation and climb of tsunami waves on the atoll.
On the investigation of solitary wave forces, Jin et al. (2011) analyzed
the effect of bridge superstructure elevation on wave forces, anddeveloped a two-dimensional potential flow model for calculating wave
loads on submerged bridge superstructures. Seiffert and Hayatdavoodi

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