• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.195-201
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• 2019

Long caisson breakwaters can improve the structural safety of a caisson due to the wave dispersion effect which reduces the average wave force acting on one caisson. However, in order to make long caissons, there are many manufacturing and construction limitations. Recently, interlocking caisson systems, which are to form a long caisson by interlocking individual caissons with adjacent caissons, have been much attention. In the present study, a interlocking caisson system with shear-keys was proposed and the wave dispersion effect according to the shear-key was evaluated analytically. As a result, (1) Because of the asymmetric shape of the interlocking caisson, the structure behavior and the wave dispersion effect of one are also asymmetric. (2) The wave dispersion effect is more influenced by the distribution and characteristics of wave acting on each caisson rather than the shape of the shear-key such as shear angle, height, shear length ratio. (3) The interlocking caisson breakwater is almost the same behavior and wave dispersion effect as a fully integrated breakwater.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.678-685
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• 2012

The objective of this study is to monitor the health status of harbor caissons which have potential foundation damage. To obtain the objective, the following approaches are performed. Firstly, a structural damage monitoring(SDM) method is designed for interlocked multiple-caisson structures. The SDM method utilizes the change in modal strain energy to monitor the foundation damage in a target caisson unit. Secondly, a finite element model of a caisson system which consists of three caisson units is established to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. In the finite element simulation, the caisson units are constrained each other by shear-key connections. The health status of the caisson system against various levels of foundation damage is monitored by measuring relative modal displacements between the adjacent caissons.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.315-323
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• 2015

Damage level of coastal structures has been scaled up according to increase of wave height and duration of the storm due to the abnormal global climate change. So, the design criteria for new breakwaters is being intensified and structural strengthening is also conducted for the existing breakwaters. Recently, interlocking concept has been much attention to enhance the structural stability of the conventional caisson structure designed individually to resist waves. The interlocking caisson breakwater may be survival even if unusual high wave occurs because the maximum wave force may be reduced by phase lags among the wave forces acting on each caisson. In this study, the dispersion characteristics of wave forces using interlocking system that connect the upper part of caisson with cable in the normal direction of breakwater was investigated. A simplified linear model was developed for computational efficiency, in which the foundation and connection cables were modelled as linear springs, and caisson structures were assumed to be rigid. From numerical experiments, it can be found that the higher wave forces are transmitted through the cable as the angle of incident wave is larger, and the larger the stiffness of the interlocking cable makes larger wave dispersion effect.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2017

Recently, the possibility of abnormal waves of which height is greater than design wave height have been increased due to the climate change, and therefore it has been urgent to secure the stability for harbor structures. As a countermeasure for improving the stability of conventional caisson breakwaters, a method has been proposed in which adjacent caissons are interlocked with each other to consecutively resist the abnormal wave forces. In order to reflect this research trend, the reduction effect of the maximum wave force resulted from introducing a long caisson has been presented in the revision to the design criteria for ports and fishing harbors and commentary. However, no method has been proposed to evaluate the stability of interlocking caisson breakwater. In this study, we consider the effect of the phase difference of the oblique incidence of the wave based on the linear wave theory and apply the Goda pressure formula for considering design wave pressure distribution in the vertical direction. Sliding stability assessment formula of an interlocking caisson breakwater is proposed for regular, irregular, and multi-directional irregular wave conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2020

The rotational stability of an interlocking caisson breakwater was studied. Using the analytical solution for the linear wave incident to the infinite breakwater, the phase difference effect of wave pressures in the direction of the breakwater baseline is considered, and Goda's wave pressure formula in the design code is adopted to consider the nonlinearity of the design wave. The rotational safety factor of the breakwater was defined as the ratio of the rotational frictional resistance moment due to caisson's own weight and the acting rotational moment due to the horizontal and vertical wave forces. An analytical solution for the rotational center point location and the minimum safety factor is presented. Stability assessment formula were proposed to be applicable to all design wave conditions used in current port and harbor structure design such as regular waves, irregular waves and multi-directional irregular waves.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.441-463
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• 2013

In this paper, a simplified planar model is developed for damage estimation of interlocked caisson systems. Firstly, a conceptual dynamic model of the interlocked caisson system is designed on the basis of the characteristics of existing harbor caisson structures. A mass-spring-dashpot model allowing only the sway motion is formulated. To represent the condition of interlocking mechanisms, each caisson unit is connected to adjacent ones via springs and dashpots. Secondly, the accuracy of the planar model's vibration analysis is numerically evaluated on a 3-D FE model of the interlocked caisson system. Finally, the simplified planar model is employed for damage estimation in the interlocked caisson system. For localizing damaged caissons, a damage detection method based on modal strain energy is formulated for the caisson system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 2017

In order to cope with the abnormally high waves during the storm surge due to climate change, various methods have been proposed for interlocking adjacent caissons to enhance stability of harbor structures. Among the methods, it was studied the method based on an open-cell caisson having reduction effect increasing the cohesion with adjunction caissons by filling materials such as crushed rocks in an inter-cell formed by two facing open-cells which consist of transverse walls. It is necessary to investigate the shear behaviors of an inter-cell to secure the stability using calculating shear forces on inter-cell under oblique wave loadings. It was analyzed the shear force share ratio with the length of internal and external wall and the number of internal walls. Numerical results show that 60~70% of the shear load is transmitted to adjacent caisson through the internal walls, more than 30% is through the external wall. It was applicable in the assumption that filling materials was uniformly distributed in inter-cells, and further studies were worth consideration on other conditions under construction.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.737-743
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• 2016

Coastal hazards such as high waves are expected to increase due to global climate change. Therefore, we investigated new armor unit structures for disaster prevention. Recently, a concrete caisson has been used in many breakwaters against high waves in South Korea, but the demand for concrete armor unit has increased due to the high cost and many installation requirements. Though many new armor units have been developed over the world since Tetrapod in 1950, few have been used due to lack of systematical development. The representative armor units in current use have many advantages, but they cannot be applied to waves higher than 8 m. One of the new armor units developed by the design guide based on recent trend and hydraulic model experiments were conducted. The new armor unit was developed as a single layer due to cost effectiveness. However, the thickness is close to 1.5 times by overlapping the alphabet A and V. It showed higher overtopping compared to a double layer because of the thickness and the high packing density. It has a high interlocking vertically but low horizontally. It shows good stability at 9 m in model testing.