Quay walls
Horizontal soil pressure on quay walls can lead to serious failure modes and requires attention during the design phase. Concrete element block walls are often used to create quay walls, but they may be subject to deterioration when the blocks are reinforced with steel bars.
For quay walls, reinforced soil layers combined with steel gabion facing, modular concrete blocks or thin concrete panels are used to build a vertical facing. A facing designed in this way can accommodate high surcharges, including mobile cranes.
Conventional solutions such as steel sheet piling, gabions, mass concrete gravity walls, concrete L-shape cantilever or piled walls all work by passively resisting the weight of the soil itself.
The distinct advantage of reinforced soil solutions is that they are stabilised internally. This is achieved by the installation of horizontal layers of woven fabric or geogrids in the soil adjacent to the quay wall. The tensile strength of the reinforcement is mobilised by the weight of the soil and surcharge loads.
Concrete used in marine applications is subjected to a harsh environment. Salt penetrates the concrete and causes the steel to rust over time. This makes it expand, which may crack the concrete surface leading to spalling of the concrete, while sand and shells cause severe abrasion.
To improve the durability of the concrete in the quay wall, Micro fibres are added to the concrete, creating a fibre network that decreases the permeability of the concrete by controlling micro-cracking during the curing process. This increases the impact and abrasion resistance.
Macro fibres can be added to provide a residual flexural strength after cracking. In this way, macro fibres reduce the amount of steel used inside quay walls and help to maintain the integrity of the concrete mass even when it has been cracked by preventing spalling.
Reinforced soil solutions offer increased flexibility in the design and construction of quay walls and the types of fill material that may be used behind them. Concrete facings, either segmental or cast in situ are proven to have improved durability, micro crack resistance and reduced maintenance when appropriate mixes of synthetic fibres are included within the concrete.
Functions:
- Reinforcement of wall structures fibres
- Reducing plastic shrinkage
- Enhancing residual flexural strength
- Improving freeze-thaw resistance
- Increasing impact and abrasion resistance
- Improving chemical resistance
- Reducing the need for maintenance and replacements
- Minimizing steel reinforcement
Relevant products:
