The Chinese and national codes and standards are not explicitly specified that how the effective impact energy of vessel distributes between fenders,and it is usually considered to be fully absorbed by a single fender.Taking fender selection for an oversea gravity quay for an instance,we study the possibility of multi-fender distribution of vessel effective impact energy,elaborate the effective impact energy calculation method in PIANC standard and fender selection procedure.The results show that,it is reasonable to consider multi-fender distribution of vessel effective impact energy in PIANC standard when the damage of fenders will not cause severe damage to quay structure.This design concept can reduce the energy absorbed capacity requirement for single fender,accordingly reduce cost of quay structure,it may serve as reference to quay design in oversea engineering.