Surf Load

Yeah, taking about surf load should be interesting because it is about surf, beach and sun. However, if you are doing some designing for sea structure it is not more so fun.

Have you ever wonder how the wave is created by the natural. If you happened to be man made wave before you simply said cause but mechanized machine which you can't fathom. Well, the nature create wave by the wind, the gravitational pull from the moon and sun. Next, by the storm and atmospheric pressure differences, and by the tectonic movement that created the killer waves tsunami. But we human also can created waves by using our body, remember the time when you lost your direction or accidentally drank the waves caused by the wave of swimmer near you. So, when the big ship sail past, they also created massive wave.

Enough about introduction though bit poor and simple. How do we calculate the wave load that slam into the structure in the sea? Firstly, in terms of seastate, we idealize the wave surface profile and wave kinematics, sound like wind load by wave theory.

Secondly, computation of the wave forces off individual members and on the total structure from the fluid motion.

Almost similar concept to the wind load calculation. So, no sweat. Designed wave where a regular wave of given height and period is defined and forces due to this wave are calculated using high order wave theory (no idea bout the high order theory, but it give me the impression of complicated stuff). Like in the wind load case, you thought how come we take the wave load as the static load when you are at the seaside you can few the wave: some weak, some medium and some whack in to you hard. Boy, you are really curious. We consider the assume the structure static behaviour when the max wave period of 100 years is chosen and that dominant wave period is more than the design life span of the structure normally, 25 years.