The dynamic testing of a collision tolerant pile structure

The Collision Tolerant Pile Structure has been under development by the University of New Hampshire and U.S. Coast Guard for ten years. The structure is designed to take the place of standard wooden piles used by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark navigational hazards in narrow ship channels. The CTPS consists of a steel pile that is connected to an omnidirectional hinge at the mudline. This design allows the structure to survive collisions with ships or barges where wooden piles would otherwise fail. Two prototypes deployed in the Houston Ship Channel have survived numerous collisions to date. A third prototype installed at Portsmouth, NH is presently being monitored to determine the fatigue design life. The CTPS is outfitted with an ENDECO/YSI data acquisition Field Station. This system handles inputs from several meteorological sensors and a pressure sensor in order to obtain continual real time data. Data acquired includes wind speed and direction, air temperature, wave height, and two angles of tilt. This data is acquired and temporarily archived on site