Shaking Table Tests for Evaluation of Seismic Performance of L-type Caisson Quay Walls

L형 케이슨 안벽 구조물의 내진성 평가를 위한 진동대 시험

Shaking table tests and pseudo-static analysis were performed, in this study, on newly-designed aseismatic L-type caisson quay walls, which were constructed by extending the bottom plate of gravity quay walls into the backfill soil. The L-type quay walls are expected to give economical benefits by reducing the cross-sectional area of the wall while maintaining its aseismatic efficiency as much as the classical caisson gravity quay wall. To confirm the effectiveness of the L-type structure, the geometry of L-type quay walls were varied for shaking table tests. And, to verify the influence of backfill soils on the seismic behavior of quay walls, additional shaking table tests were performed on the L-type quay wall after the backfill soils were replaced by gravels and light materials. As a result, it was found that L-type caisson quay walls are good earthquake resistant structures but increasing the length of bottom plate did not proportionally increase the effectiveness of the structure in its aseismatic performance. Replacing the backfill soils by the gravels and light materials, contrary to our expectation, was not an effective measure in improving the seismic performance of L-type caisson quay wall.