![]() | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Anchored sheet piles have been used as front quay walls worldwide for decades. With the increase in vessel drafts and weights, the front sheet pile walls need to be upgraded by increasing the depth of the dredging line in front of the wall. The typical method to increase the depth of an existing wall is to install a new wall infront of the sheet pile wall and backfill the area between the new and the existng wall. One of the new methods to upgrade the sheet pile wall is to add a separate platform to the system, where the platform is structurally separated from the front wall. This thesis presents a numerical investigation utilizing finite element analysis on the behavior of a separated relieving platform installed within an existing anchored sheet-pile quay wall. The investigation was conducted in two steps: a verification step followed by a parametric study. In the verification step, the numerical model was verified with field measurements performed by others. The validated model was extended within the parametric study to a series of models with different backfill soils, separation gap widths, and numbers of pile rows supporting the platform. The results of the numerical investigation show that the increase in the separation gap width gradually increases the bending moments on the front wall regardless of the backfill soil type, while this effect is reversed in pile rows (gradually decreasing) In addition, the possibility of deepening the basin along with separation was examined to take advantage of the positive separation effect on the piles and front wall. Moreover, using stiff clay as backfill soil (neglecting consolidation) provides better performance for the front wall and first pile row adjacent to the front wall than sandy backfills. The increase in the degree of compaction of the sandy backfill slightly increased the lateral deformations but reduced the bending moment acting on the pile rows, whereas the effect was minor on the front wall. Finally, this thesis examines the possibility of reducing the number of piles supporting the platform (along with the width of the platform) to achieve optimization for quay wall rehabilitation. |