A partially coupled effective stress analysis is assessed in predicting the seismic performance of a caisson-type quay wall. Using a nonlinear finite difference program, a numerical study of shaking table tests, carried out at Tokyo University, is performed. In this paper, the formulation of an employed computational code is described, and the results of numerical simulation are compared with the measured records. The results demonstrate that the trend and magnitude of vertical and horizontal displacements of quay wall appear to be predicted reasonably well. The overall tendency is to overpredict the horizontal movement, but the vertical movement is underpredicted.

Fixed offshore platforms in seismic active areas may be subjected to strong ground motions, causing the platform to undergo deformation well into the inelastic range. In this paper, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) of jacket type offshore platforms subjected to earthquake was performed in order to study the linear and nonlinear dynamic behavior of this type of structures. IDA is a parametric analysis method that has been recently presented to estimate structural performance under seismic loads. By using incremental dynamic analysis of jacket type offshore platforms, the assessment of demand and capacity can be carried out. The method was used to predict nonlinear behavior of three newly designed jacket type offshore platforms subjected to strong ground motions. The engineering demand parameters of the platforms in terms of story drifts and intermediate elevation maximum displacement for different records were compared. This method was used for the performance calculations (immediate occupancy, collapse prevention, and global dynamic instability) needed for performance-based earthquake engineering of the above mentioned platforms. Two different behaviors were observed for the third platform in the X and Y directions. Particular attention has to be paid for the seismic design of this kind of platform. The results of jacket type offshore platforms incremental dynamic analysis shows that the method is a valuable tool for studying dynamic behavior in a nonlinear range of deformation. Because of high uncertainty in the nonlinear behavior of this type of structures, it is recommended to use this method for the assessment and requalification of existing jacket type offshore platforms subjected to earthquake.

In this paper, the problem and analysis method of underwater storage tanks resting on a horizontal seabed is presented under stochastic earthquake loading. The tank is axisymmetrical and has a flexible wall/roof. The finite element method is used for the response solution. A solid axisymmetrical finite element has been formulated to idealize the tank whereas an axisymmetrical fluid element is used for the idealization of the fluid domain. The Eulerian formulation of the fluid system is used to calculate the interactive water pressure acting on the tank during the free motion of the tank and earthquake motion. For the response calculation, the modal analysis technique is used with a special algorithm to obtain natural frequencies of the water-structure coupled system. For the stochastic description of the earthquake loading, the modified Kanai–Tajimi earthquake spectrum is used. Finally, the analysis method presented in the paper is demonstrated by an example.