Comparative study on the seismic performance of two types of quay wall structures

A new type of quay wall structure has been proposed to improve the seismic resistance capability of existing sheet pile quay wall structures. The new structure adopts a combination of stabilized soil and geogrid, and this structure is referred to simply as SG-WALL. This paper presents a numerical comparative study on the seismic performances of quay wall structures between the newly developed SG-WALL and the traditional anchor pile-reinforced structure. The calculated results, including displacement of sheet pile, ground settlement, bending moment and stress of sheet pile, and excess pore water pressure, were analyzed and discussed. It was shown that both types of improvement methods can effectively reduce the residual displacements of sheet piles after earthquakes. The residual displacements at the top of the sheet piles in SG-WALL structure and the anchor pile-reinforced structure decreased by 35.6 and 38.2%, respectively. In addition, the SG-WALL structure can more significantly reduce the ground settlement due to earthquakes. The maximum ground settlement in SG-WALL structure and the anchor pile-reinforced structure decreased by 67.3 and 58.9%, respectively.