Study on working depth of reclaimed port ground under container load

Land reclamation is becoming an important resort in solving the land-scare issue for port construction in highly-built coastal areas. No research, to the authors#x02019; knowledge, has been reported previously to study the working depth of reclaimed port ground under the action of container load. The induced stress distribution and the resilient modulus are firstly investigated via a set of full-scale loading tests. It is indicated that under the loading condition of #x0201c;3 layers of containers#x0201d;, when the ratio of induced stress to gravity stress is equal to 0.2 and 0.1, the corresponding depths are 1.80 m and 2.60 m, respectively. The magnitude of resilient modulus increases with the thickness of sand cushion. The dispersion degree of resilient modulus is greater when the thickness is thinner. Subsequently, a series of numerical simulations are conducted using FLAC^3D. The pavement is simulated by means of the elastic model and the ground by M-C model. The numerical models cover a wider range of loading condition and sand cushion thickness. A detailed investigation on various parameters of port ground is performed, such as induced stress, vertical strain and lateral displacement.