Numerical analysis of breakwater construction on soft clay in harbor area of Lianyungang Port

The ground in Xuwei harbor area of Lianyungang Port is the deep soft clay, and its engineering property is poor. On the soft ground the breakwater is proposed to be constructed. Predicting the consolidation settlement of the ground of the breakwater accurately can give a design optimization and provide technical support for the harbor construction. The modified Cam-clay model is used as the constitutive model for soils, and the staged-construction of the breakwater is simulated. A systematic parametric study is conducted, and the results are back-calculated to determine the extent and permeability of smear zone with respect to installation of offshore PVDs. The numerical results reveal that when the extent ratio is 5 and the permeability ratio k_h/k_s is 5, the in-situ observed results agree well with the numerical ones. In order to meet the requirements of the post-construction settlement of oil pipeline foundation, the construction quality of PVDs should be controlled, and the preloading time of the breakwater should be more than 13 months.