Tie-rod force measurements in cargo berth

The third general cargo berth at Paradeep Port situated on the east coast of India consists of a diaphragm wall anchored to a deaoman diaphragm wall by tie-rods. In addition, the diaphragm wall is connected to two rows of largediameter vertical piles by a rigid deck system. The deck system being rigid and tie-rods flexible, the lateral loads are shared between the piles and the deadman diaphragm wall. To assess the load sharing, forces in the tie-rods were measured before and after dredging. The results obtained were compared with those of a finite element analysis of the structural system using beam elements for the diaphragm walls, piles, and beams, and boundary elements for the soil medium. The measured tie-rod forces compared very well with the analytical result and confirmed that a substantial portion of the lateral load was transferred to the piles. Based on the studies, the design of another berth in the vicinity was modified to retain the vertical piles and eliminate the deadman diaphragm wall and tie-rods, resulting in substantial savings in cost and time. © ASCE.