Centrifuge testing of multi-block quay walls

Evidence from recent earthquakes has shown that quay walls are particularly vulnerable to seismic shaking. Being key components of commercial and passenger ports, their seismic damage may incur pronounced direct and indirect losses. To make things worse, the vast majority of ports in Europe’s high-seismicity areas (e.g., Greece, Italy), were designed and constructed several decades ago, according to obsolete seismic codes. Such quay walls are typically composed of multiple blocks, resting on top of each other without substantial shear connection. Although the seismic performance of modern single-block quay walls has been studied extensively, there is lack of knowledge on the response of existing quay walls. In a first attempt to tackle this problem, centrifuge model tests were conducted at the University of Dundee, using the Piraeus Port (Greece) as a case study. The paper presents the physical modelling approach and some first results of the centrifuge tests