California State Lands Commission (MOTEMS)

Marine Oil Terminal Engineering and Maintenance Standards

California State Lands Commission appointed SC Solutions to examine the requirements of Marine Oil Terminal Engineering and Maintenance Standards (MOTEMS) for their wharf and pipeline structures. During the destruction of a berth at the Port of Long Beach, several pile groups and their associated deck structures were left in place for testing purposes. SC Solutions then conducted the analytical predictions of this test. An ADINA model was assembled to simulate each test specimen. The pile properties were modeled as moment-curvature elements with the minimum and maximum expected properties of the materials used to derive pile properties. Non-linear soil springs were added to the embedded portions of the piles, and the piles were pushed over in the same direction as the actual tests.

The University of California, San Diego then performed the physical tests, pushing over the test sections with hydraulic jacks and measuring the load-deflection behavior. Strain-based performance analysis and nonlinear dynamic analysis for typical wharf structure and typical pipe line structures at the Port of Long Beach Facilities were performed. The resulting load-deflection curves and pile strains were then compared to the completed test results. The strain calculation procedure and the modeling procedure of MOTEMS were confirmed by correlation of the experimental and analytical results at the Port of Long Beach.