Bestandteil des Graduiertenkollegs "Seehäfen für Containerschiffe zukünftiger Generationen" www.tu-harburg.de/gsc/

Shrinkage of concrete and fluctuations in temperature lead to restraints which cause cracking of concrete. This stresses especially massive concrete structures like quay walls and crane runways in addition to service loads (e.g. quayside cranes or ship impact).

Alternating loads and movement restraints cause deterioration of concrete. This involves reduction of stiffness and relocation of stresses. The resulting changes in structural behaviour of the quay are observed by finite element models that include the nonlinear material behaviour of reinforced concrete and consider the interaction of concrete quay structure, substructure and soil.

Common techniques of structural analysis can not sufficiently capture the discontinuities and stress relocations due to crack propagation. The first task of the research project “Quay Structures under Live Loads” is to enhance computer models based on physically consistent assumptions, so that local stresses subjected to restraints and service loads can be determined. Building on that typical harbour issues will be addressed: especially the evaluation of common quay structures in terms of crack occurrence, prediction of crack widths and crack propagation during service as well as accumulative damage due to fatigue. Finally the results of this research should lead to guidelines to the design of quay structures.