So I asked A I...
"What happens to my dock when a 60 - 70 mph wind hits it?"
Using AI for assistance in figuring out complex problems is getting easier. I have tested 5 different AI systems, Grok3, ChatGTP, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot And Google Gemini and all generally get the answers to my questions the same. You have to be very specific if you want data you can trust to be relevant to your problem. The answers always come with explanations that help understand the answers.
I used an example dock setup that is common in size and construction. After describing the dock, its components, its location on a shoreline, its anchoring components, I asked each AI to describe an event that would occur when a 60, 65, and 70 mph gusts of wind engage the dock, to compare different size cables and cable tensions and to describe the stresses involved, to compare with a 2nd set of cables installed, and what would happen if you removed or didn't have the Dock Springs in the system?
The prompt I used...
I have a one story boat dock that is 28 x 32 feet with the 32 foot side parallel to the east facing shoreline, (a shoreline that faces east and has a north south relationship to the water). The frame is constructed from 12 gauge 3 inch square steel tube. The dock has a 30 degree hip style steel roof covering 50% of surface of the structure. Wood decking covers the floor area with a weight of 4 lbs. per sq. ft., and floatation created by rectangular foam filled floats with sufficient buoyancy to lift the lower deck surface 16 inches above the water. The overall height is 10' above the water.
The dock has two 10 foot wide boat slips that each contain a boat. One is a 5000 lb. boat and the other a 3000 lb. boat. Each is on a floating boat lift in lifted positions. Each boat lift weighs 1200 lbs.
The walkway from the shore to the dock is 65 feet long by 3.5 feet wide with railings. It is constructed of 2 inch 16 gauge square steel tube construction with wood decking and uses a pivot point at its mount on the shore and a hinge at the dock end. The walkway positions the dock 65 feet from the shoreline.
The dock is attached to two anchor points on the shoreline with cables. One cable is attached at the south west corner of the dock and extends to the south anchor at a 45 degree angle on the horizontal plane. The other is attached at the north west corner of the dock and extends to the north anchor at a 45 degree angle on the horizontal plane. One anchor post is located south of the walkway and one is located north of the walkway. The walkway to the dock is centered between the two anchor posts. Each shore anchor is constructed of 5 inch round .25" pipe 5 feet long with 4 feet of the pipe buried in a vertical orientation in a 16" diameter hole filled with concrete in solid soil.
The dock uses 3500 pound working load limit hand winches made by or similar to the Fulton brand with a locking feature to attach the cables to the corners of the dock. The breaking load limit of each winch is 2x the WLL.The cable used to secure the dock is 3/8" 316 stainless steel 7x19 with breaking strength of 14,400 lbs. The cable slack is adjustable via the winches at each shore side corner, between its mount at the corners of the dock and the shore anchors.
Between each cable and the shore anchor points is a coil spring dampener with a progressive compression rate that begins at 800 pounds per inch compression and tops out at 2200 pounds per inch compression rate. The coil spring is constructed of .930" coil wire, with 6.65" diameter, 16.25" relaxed length, 8.75" compressed length, and 9 active coils.
Describe the events that occur when the dock is engaged directly from the south side with a 60 mph gust of wind that lasts 60 seconds before subsiding. The body of water is 1500 feet wide at the dock's location. The surface of the water is affected by the wind and moves in the wind's direction. Understand that the wind is from one direction, the south, blowing northward and its effect will be to push the dock north and result in a load on one side of the dock's anchor system.
Address the following:
What if the wind reaches 65 mph?
What if the wind reaches 70 mph?
What is the shock load on cables and impact load on anchor and winch affected during the event?
What would be the effect if the cables were 5/16" instead of 3/8"?
What if each cable was tensioned with 100 pounds of force to preload the coil spring dampeners?
What if there were 2 feet of slack in each cable?
What would be the effect if a second set of 3/8" 316 stainless 7x19 anchor cables were installed with one running from the dock's northwest winch to the south shore anchor and the other running from the dock's southwest winch to the north shore anchor?
And finally, What if the coil spring dampeners were removed?
Use imperial units for measurement in the answers.
Last year, I went through a battle with my insurance company over my storm damaged roof. After 2 appeals, they employed a roof engineer to do a study on my roof. He included the below in his report which I found very interesting. A wind verification report. The report covers the 10 years prior to my claim and documents wind in the 60's regularly here and in the 70's nearby. Using 60 to 70 mph winds in the problem is realistic. I got a new roof.
I have since installed a Vevor 7 station weather gizmo on the top of my dock that gives me real time info and saves it for reports when I might need one. Its pretty cool to see a thunderstorm roll in and the waves pick up and be able to measure the windspeed. It was about $80 and took 15 minutes to install. Here is the link to my weather station, https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KALCRANE31.
My summary:
All floating docks benefit greatly from dampeners on the cables. Dock Springs should be mandatory standard equipment on all floating docks. I used the intelligence of AI to try to quantify those energies and how they effect docks. AI is almost as good has having your own private mechanical engineer on staff. I shared my AI search for knowledge with you here so you may see that the consensus is; Dock Spring dampeners give strength to your dock. Its math. They work. You need them.