ABSTRACT
For the first time ever, the author of the paper considers the effect caused by cyclic navigational load on the long-term settlement of soils at the base of shipping locks during their operation. Ships go through a lock when it is filled with water and the level in the upstream and downstream waterways decreases, which results in cyclic load that has an impact on the foundation soils. Long-term monitoring of the Gorodets and Volga hydroelectric complex gives evidence that the final settlement of some sections of locks under operational load varies from 25 to 65 mm and 10 - 12 cm (plus 14 - 18 cm during the construction period) while the settlement lasted for 52 and 31 years respectively. The value of the residual settlement caused by static and cyclic loading decreases if the initial density of the foundation soil is higher, the same as the number of loading cycles for achieving it at given stresses from the external load. The author suggests effective vibrodynamic methods of compaction that should be applied in order to decrease the values of settlements from static and cyclic loads and reduce the consolidation time of water-saturated sandy soils under cyclic load.
