ABSTRACT
Ground improvement by means of surcharge and vertical drains are often employed to accelerate the consolidation of newly reclaimed lands. However, the long-term performance of the reclaimed land is uncertain as the creep settlement of the land after unloading may exceed the stringent ground settlement limit for the operation of container port with various automated port equipment. A review of published literature reveals that existing methods have limitations on predicting the long-term ground settlement after surcharge unloading. In this article, a theoretical approach is proposed to simulate the long-term ground settlement after unloading. The approach is verified against long term soil consolidation tests subject to different over-consolidation ratios. Finally, the potential applications of the theoretical approach in practice are highlighted.
