mooring design for ohio river

huangyhg

mooring design for ohio river
i was wondering if anyone had any helpful information regarding the design of moorings for a river location that would constrain barges. pipe and structural steel are proposed as the material.  help is needed on how to complete calcs. relating to tension and compression forces on the moorings relative to different water levels in the channel.
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i was involved in a project some years ago that was located on the mississippi river, just up from the quad cities (davenport, ia / moline, il).  
it was a barge terminal for a grain storage system that involved construction of about 7 or 8 barge cells.  these cells were constructed of sheet piling placed in a large circle, perhaps about 30 feet in diameter.  after driving these into the river bed, the tops of the sheet piling were cut off about 12 to 16 feet above the water line and the circular "cans" were filled with compacted sand and then topped with a 3 foot thick concrete cap.  
conveyors, cranes and other apparatus were then attached to the concrete caps.  the barges would run up alongside the cells and attach to a cable that ran along the sides of the cells.  the cables, if i re  
check with the corp. of engineers and tennessee valley authority (tva), which have heavy dealing with barges and docks, to see if they have a standard mooring details.
i've done a good bit of work on rivers and one of my coworkers (and mentors) is the premier industrial river structure engineer of the lower mississippi (below baton rouge).  he's done many structures for barges much farther up the river as well.
there are many ways to approach your problem and most of them are dependent on the particulars of your situation.  a few questions:
- what is the minimum draft?
- what is the maximum water fluctuation?
- how many barges are you trying to constrain?
- will they be permanently moored or is this a berth?
- if it is a berth, do you need barge haul capability?
- what will be going in/on the barges?
- what size are the barges?
i started my career do these problems for the army corps of engineers in pittsburgh.  i agree with swearingen there are a lot of items to consider and he lists a good start.  as for some design guidance, i would suggest that you get a copy of the design guide by "pile-buck".  it was many years a go but i think they have a good example calculation.  as most design guides it will not cover all the necessary issues but should give you a good flavor of what you need to consider.
you might want to check out the (cough - expensive) mooring analysis program, optimoor.
we've got optimoor plus (and it is expensive, as the viking says), and it is a great program.  however, it might be more cost effective to try and find a local firm that has it and have them do the initial analysis.  that is, unless your company wants to start doing more of this type of work...
ekizak has a good suggestion on the pile-buck information.  if you are looking to use sheet pile cells, they have some good design guides.  what they don't do is go into global design, i.e., how an individual cell fits into what you're trying to do and what loads are to be applied to it from the barges.
a couple of (hard to find) books you may want to try and get your hands on:
"the marine environment and structural design", john gaythwaite, p.e.
"design & construction of ports & marine structures", alonzo def. quinn