Uplift forces on wave exposed jetties: Scale comparison and effect of venting

The large-scale experiments described herein were carried out at Forschungs-Zentrum Küste (FZK), Hannover (Germany) by a research team composed by the Universities of Bologna, Edinburgh, Southampton, Plymouth and the Coast & Harbor Engineering Inc (USA). Wave-induced loads on close-to-prototype jetties were measured. Experimental evidence indicates the presence of force peaks with a short space-time correlation structure, carried by convective processes with a velocity of the order of the wave celerity. After a 100 Hz sampling, forces on the deck bays and front induced by regular and irregular waves are analyzed, focusing the effects on the wave-in-deck loads of (i) wave irregularity, (ii) air venting and (iii) experiment scale in the evaluation of maximum and quasi-static loads. A comparison with the small-scale results is carried out, but differences could not be directly ascribed to scale effects only.