• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.61-70
• /
• 2011

The impact protection system consists of an arrangement of circular sheet pile cofferdams-denoted dolphin structuredeeply embedded in the seabed, filled with crushed rock and closed at the top with a robust concrete cap. Centrifuge model tests were performed to investigation the behaviors of dolphins in this study. Total 7 quasi-model tests and 11 dynamic model tests were performed. The main experimental results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, The experimental force-displacement results for quasi-static tests show a limited influence on the initial stiffness of the structure from the change in fill density and the related change in the stiffness of the fill. And by comparing the dissipation at the same dolphin displacement it was found that the denser fill increase the dissipation by 16% for the 20m dolphin and by 23% for the 30m dolphin. The larger sensitivity for the large dolphin is explained by a larger contribution to the dissipation from strain in the fill. In low level impacts the dynamic force-response is up to 26~58% larger than the quasi-static and the dissipation response is showed larger in small displacement. Hence, it is concluded conservative to use the quasi-static response characteristics in the approximation of the response, and it is further concluded that the dolphin resistance to low level impacts is demonstrated to be equivalent and even superior to the high level impacts.