A simplified modelling approach for the analysis of port quay-walls with relieving platform
A simplified modelling approach for the analysis of port quay-walls with relieving platform
Port infrastructures are vital for maintaining global supply chains, as maritime transport accounts for roughly 80% of international trade by volume. The increase in vessel dimensions over recent decades has placed growing structural and operational demands on berthing facilities, forcing port authorities to develop increasingly robust retaining structures. Among these, quay walls with relieving platforms represent one of the most sophisticated configurations, wherein the wall, piles, anchor systems, and concrete superstructures work together to resist the lateral earth pressure, the loads from the cranes and stored goods. The complex mechanical interaction of these structures with the soil has driven widespread adoption of numerical modelling in quay wall engineering practice.
Finite element models considering the nonlinear soil behaviour and the complex geometry of the structure became, in recent years, part of common design practice. In fact, due to the presence of the relieving platform and the piles supporting it, in principle, simplified design approaches, such as those only considering the wall and lumping the lateral soil reactions at the wall nodes as nonlinear springs cannot be adopted. Consequently, time-consuming numerical analyses are required in the design process, limiting the number of configurations (e.g., pile diameter, length, and spacing) that can be explored, as well as the application of probabilistic approaches for reliability assessment.
The goal of this work is to demonstrate how, with an appropriate yet simple modelling approach, the response of a quay wall with a relieving platform can be reproduced as that of an anchored flexible retaining wall.
Federico Montali; Ozan Alver; C. Jommi; Kenneth G. Gavin; Luca Flessati
International Conference on Advances and Innovations in Soft Soil Engineering (ICAISSE2026)
Infrastructure Performance and Monitoring
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICAISSE2026-202