EFFECT OF TSUNAMI INDUCED CURRENTS ON FLOATING PONTOONS WITH THE MOORING LINES

Abstract

A strong earthquake (Mw=6.6) of normal faulting striking about E-W occurred on October 30, 2020, between offshore Seferihisar (Izmir, Turkey) and Samos Island (Greece). The earthquake generated a tsunami that affected a region in the Aegean Coast of Turkey from Cesme Alacati in the northwestern part to Gumuldur coast in the southeastern part. The tsunami caused a change in the sea water level, inundations, and severe damage to marine vessels and coastal structures. Especially, floating docks in Teos Marina, Seferihisar were highly damaged due to tsunami hydrodynamic forces (GEER, 2020). It was observed that the mooring chains and fairleads were broken, and the pontoons were dragged offshore. Moreover, the aluminum frames of docks and the moored ships were damaged. The literature survey shows that although the effect of tsunami-induced currents on the floating docks with pile guides is investigated (Keen et al. 2017), there is not any study that calculates damages on the floating docks with connected units and the mooring lines and the assessment of the damage due to the tsunami-induced currents using a hydrodynamic numerical model. In this study, the effect of tsunami-induced sea-level changes and currents on the floating docks of Teos Marina are investigated by numerical hydrodynamic modeling.