Study Of Slipping In The Rubble-bedding Of Gravity Quay

Depth of rubble-bedding must be increased to ensure foundation bearing capacity when building a gravity quay on base whose soft clay is thicker. Active earth pressure of back rubble-bedding increases with the rubble-bedding depth, which influences the stability of rubble-bedding. In this paper, the problem of horizontal slipping in the rubble-bedding of gravity quay is studied by theoretical computation, numerical analysis and theoretical deducing systematically, and then a new simplification method is advanced.Firstly, some models of gravity quay are built to compute the stability of their rubble-bedding respectively with the method of original criterion and the method considering active earth pressure of back rubble-bedding. It can be found that it be stable with the former and unstable with the later.Secondly, the inner stress and whole stability of the gravity quay models are analyzed by engineering FEM program PLAXIS. It can be found that active earth pressure of back of rubble-bedding influence the stress distribution in the rubble-bedding where there is a potential latent slipping plane. The result is in accord with that of the method considering the earth press back of the rubble-bedding.Thirdly, the depth range and the most disadvantage depth of slipping plane in the rubble-bedding are deduced in theory. At the same time, the effecting factors of the most disadvantage depth are discussed, for instance the calculation equivalent width, structure height, rear load and inner friction angle.Finally, the characteristic of slipping in the rubble-bedding of gravity quay is summarized and a checking method is summed up.