Load Test in Quay Walls

Quay walls are critical infrastructures that play an essential role in the functionality, safety and prosperity of ports, canals rivers, inland waterways etc. They are essential structures in retaining the soil but also to serve the berthing and mooring of boats and vessels, and with that the handling of the cargo contained in them. These walls are the essence of a port’s functionality as they serve as the main connection between a thriving commerce and economy of the port and the unknown of the ocean. That is why they must be able to withstand during long periods of time, to withstand adversity and remaining future proof. This research will ensure that the quay wall of the Yangtzecanal of the Port of Rotterdam in phase B is able to resist loads, unexpected conditions and remains future proof. The context of this project will be based on phase B, from which a road passes at only 10 meters behind the quay wall, therefore the predictions and analyses will take into account the physical boundaries of the site and monitor them. Furthermore, in order to cover the most unexpected scenarios, safety factors will be applied for the soil and for the loads. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is going to be about analyzing the different responses by the quay wall, when subjected to different load scenarios, particularly when taking the road into account. This way, during the actual load test, the response of the quay wall such as its deformation can be monitored all along, and based on the results obtained from the predictions and modeling, the load can be increased or not. It is important to mention that the load test will be carried out once the quay wall is installed, and it will be a permanent structure, therefore the results from the predictions need to be carefully analyzed so that no failure happens in real life situations. Furthermore, to conduct this research, data was gathered from the company’s resources, such as the soil data, the geometry and parameters from the quay wall, the water levels and other. The type of study will computational, as the main goal is to develop an accurate model that is capable to predict this quay wall’s response and behavior under various situations. This way, the results can serve to make informed decisions before and during the actual load test. The results of this research are obtained by combining different load combinations, and also different values for the soil’s strength parameters and for the water levels. To be more precise, a comparison is done between using average soil parameters and 95th percentile soil values also called the characteristic values, based on experimental data. The first would determine more accurately the typical day, therefore in this case a very valuable prediction for the actual load test, and the second takes into account unexpected events such as extreme weather conditions or other uncertainties. Therefore, this study will give academic context as well as background information in order to analyze the soil and find the weakest location where the load test will be performed. Next the strength parameters of the soil and the structures are calculated, followed by a calculation of load combinations and a maximum load that can be applied during the load test, along with its displacement. Moreover, the weakest soil location along the entire quay wall is found to be around the CPT point DKM051, which lies around 600 meters from the beginning on the quay wall (from left to right) in Terra+. Furthermore, with the soil layering of that point, the maximum load that can be applied within the first 10 meters behind the quay wall is 31kPa, which creates a horizontal deformation that lies in the range of 71.86 mm to 98.02 mm, without taking into account the road impact and depending on the values used for the water levels, either springtides or average and on the soil parameters, where the average values or the characteristic values are used. When the road is taken into account with its 2 lanes the range is higher, going from 74.04 mm to 101.3 mm, and when considering only 1 lane of the road the range of deformation goes from 72.51 mm to 99.18 mm.