QUICKWAVE - AN IMPULSE ALGORITHM TO CALCULATE PRELIMINARY DESIGN SHEAR AND MOMENT ENVELOPES FOR COMPLIANT TOWERS

A novel simple method to calculate compliant tower (CT) level shear an d moment envelopes for preliminary design has been developed and verif ied by comparing with rigorous 3-D tower analyses. The approach relies on a vast experience base to define important features influencing th e dynamic response of CTs, and a new closed-form solution for the acce leration (needed to construct design envelopes) of the tower caused by an impulsive-type wave load. The main benefits of the approach are: 1 ) the designer can iterate and quickly converge on a working prelimina ry design without resorting to time-consuming computer analyses; 2) th e designer can quickly evaluate configurations for different water dep ths, pile arrangements, payload, steel grade, reserve buoyancy, and we ll counts.