Structural Safety and Reliability, Corotis et al.

(eds), 2001 Swets & Zeitlinger, ISBN 90 5809 197 X

1
Modified instrumentation and results of stress and deformation
monitoring at the new quay wall construction
Container Terminal Altenwerder, Port of Hamburg
J. Gattermann, T. Bergs & W. Rodatz
Institute of Foundation Engineering and Soil Mechanics Technical, University of Braunschweig, Germany
Keywords: stress and deformation monitoring, quay wall foundation
ABSTRACT: In the last couple of years, the Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineer-
ing at the Technical University of Braunschweig (IGBTUBS) has carried out extensive measure-
ments at five different quay wall constructions in the port of Hamburg. One important result, that
was received at all different investigations is: the total load on the wall is nearly constant. The load
on the retaining wall is not dependent from the tidal water level. The extrema of water- and earth-
pressure loads occur postponed. The loads on the water pressure are almost completely compen-
sated with the change of the effective stresses. Following these results and experience, the
IGBTUBS has carried out a more extensive measurement concept for the first construction phase
of the new Container-Terminal Altenwerder in the port of Hamburg. This report contains informa-
tion on the innovations of the quay construction and the modification of some measurement in-
struments and first results of the axial forces/skin friction of the raking pile.
1 INTRODUCTION
The port of Hamburg is one of the biggest amongst the harbors in Europe. Its geographical and in-
frastructural position makes it very important as a gate from the North Sea to Europe. This port is
especially important for countries east of Germany, because ports on the Baltic Sea cannot handle
big container ships of the latest generation. Since 1980 the total freight handling in Hamburg has
grown from 63,1 million tons to 75,8 million tons in 1998. In the same time the share of contained
freight has grown from 11 % to 48 % (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg 1999). This underlines the
importance to provide sufficient space for containers and container ship berths.
The general load estimations and design methods for quay walls at the port of Hamburg are
based on long-term experiences with sheet pile construction. The reason for the comprehensive
measurement and evaluation programs were the necessary growth of these quay walls, that required
new construction principles for retaining/slurry walls or large combined sheet pile walls. A great
problem for these large quay walls in the port of Hamburg are the shingle layers of the transitionary
zone between Pleistocene and Tertian layers which contain large stones (with diameters up to
1.70 m). For additional interpretation of the deformation behavior for the safety and permanent us-
ability of these constructions, the Institute of Foundation Engineering and Soil Mechanics of the
Technical University of Braunschweig (IGBTUBS) was engaged by the 'Amt fuer Strom- und
Hafenbau' of the Free and Hanseatic Town of Hamburg with the transaction of the examinations of
several different quay wall constructions since 1992. An overview of the examined quay wall con-
struction locations in the port of Hamburg shows Figure 1.
2
A7 A1
ELBE
K

H
L
B
R
A
N
D
S

D
E
R
E
L
B
E
CITY
2
3
4
1
5
6
1 O'Swaldquay
2 Burchardquay 8. Berth
3 Predhlquay 6.+ 7. Berth
4 Burchardquay 1. Berth
5 Europaquay
6 CT Altenwerder
N
S
E W
N
O
R
D
E
R
E
L
B
E
T
U
N
N
E
L

Figure 1. Overview of the investigated quay walls by the IGBTUBS in the port of Hamburg.
2 MEASUREMENT CONCEPT
The choice of the measurement instruments was based on following points of interest:

size and development of the anchor strengths
bending of the wall as well as the total load on the wall, which results from active earth
pressure
pore-water pressures
additional loads and bracing as a result of the quay slab piles

The most important elements in this measurement concept to investigate the total load on the
wall are the earth pressure cells and pore-water pressure piezometers (Maybaum, 1996).
To reduce the risk of loss of measurement data in one observation horizon each measurement
instrument was installed twice. This backup system ensures that there is a correct value read-out.
Another control of the system of the earth pressure on the wall is through the calculation of the
loads from the measured distortions of the wall (Rodatz et al., 1995).
The installation of the combined earth and pore-water pressure cells took place after the comple-
tion of the quay slab. This installation had the disadvantage, that the primary stress in the ground
and the change in the stress affected by the construction process was unknown. At the present pro-
ject at Altenwerder, all measurement instruments were installed before any construction work had
begun.
3 LOAD RESULTS OF THE PAST GEOTECHNICAL STUDIES
The load alterations on the wall as a result of the tide during a high water event are represented in
Fig. 2 using as an example for section 7, depth-situation -11.0 m below sea level. The effective
stress that results from the difference between the measured total stress and the measured pore-
water pressure occurs in the same place. The excess water pressure was calculated as the difference
3
between the outside water level and the water level behind the wall. The sum of effective stress and
excess water pressure is the total load on the wall.
The measurements over the past four years indicate that a constant load on the wall can be
found in all measurement layers (Gattermann, 1998).

-20,0
-10,0
0,0
10,0
20,0
30,0
40,0
Days
s
t
r
e
s
s

[
k
N
/
m

]
effective stress
total load
excess water pressure

Figure 2. Exemplary constant total load on the wall of the Burchardquay during a high tide event.

An interpretation of these results does not give a clear conclusion. An influence by the
wall/quay-slab/back-wall onto the pressure of the enclosed pore-air with tidal water level was ob-
served. An influence by the length of the hinterland behind the wall with regards to water seepage
requires further examination. Due to the short length of the hinterland at the O'Swaldquay (approx.
100 m) and at the Burchardquay (60 m) a special examination of the hinterland in Altenwerder is
required.

Maybaum (1996) and Gattermann (1998) summarized that:

the investigations of the earth pressures on the basis of Coulombs theory was moderately appli-
cable in every state of construction, as far as water overpressures are generally not considered,
the reduction of the earth pressures at rest on the active earth pressures could be proven scien-
tifically / technically,
the measurement results do not occur due to an overload of single parts of the structures,
the quay walls are more than sufficiently dimensioned and stable.
4 CONTAINER TERMINAL ALTENWERDER
4.1 Introduction
As early as 1973 first planning started to realize the extension of the port of Hamburg in the area of
Altenwerder, which is situated south of the well known Khlbrand-Bridge, one of the landmarks of
Hamburg. Finally in April 1999 the construction of the quay wall itself had commenced. In the first
phase, which lasts until the year 2001, two new berths with a length of approximately 950 m will
be built. The new quay wall was built as part of a harbor development project on an approximately
250 ha site in the old fishing village of Altenwerder. The quay wall has two 350 m berths for con-
tainer ships and a feeder ship berth of over 100 m in length. Because the ground level on the site is
4
El. +7.50 m and the depth of water is El. 16.70 m (design depth of water: El. 20.80 m), the new
quay wall has to span a height difference of 24.20 m (28.30 m). Finally, a total length of 1400 m
will give four modern container ships the opportunity to unload their cargo.

4.2 Site conditions
Construction of the quay wall started on the land side. In this project, the sheet pile wall was placed
in a slurry trench (bottom of trench: El. 25.30 m). Subsequent driving down a further 4.40 m, gives
the king piles additional load-bearing capacity. They thus reach a depth of El. 29.70 m.
A system composed of 2 HZ 975B beams with a length of 32.60 m was used for the king piles.
The 27.45 m long infill sheets ( 2xAZ 18
+0,5
) have merely an earth-retaining and load-transfer
function, and are shorter than the HZ piles. The section modulus of the combined wall is
10,330cm
3
/m. The choice of an HZ-AZ combined wall with threaded and crimped infill sheets was
an economical solution. The high system width of 2270 mm enabled rapid building progress. Work
on site was accelerated further by the delivery of prefabricated units ready to pitch.

Landfill Sand
Silt Boulder Clay Gravel
Clay
mNN
+10
-10
-20
-30
0
area of quay wall

Figure 3. Geological profile.

Table 1. Soil parameters.
__________________________________________________________________________
Type c E
S

_____________________________________________________________
kN/m
3
kN/m
3
kN/m
2
MN/m
2

__________________________________________________________________________
Landfill 19 11 27.5 0 8.0
Sand 18 10 32.5 0 40.0
Clay 17 7 25.0 10 2.0
Mould/Peat 14 4 17.5 10 1.5
Gravel 19 10 35.0 0 100.0
Boulder clay 22 12 30.0 20 25.0
__________________________________________________________________________
5
The superstructure of the quay also rests on bored piles and is anchored by raking piles 46 me-
ters in length. The raking piles (HTM 600/136 sections) were driven at an angle of 1:1,3. To finish
off the quay a sheet pile wall (PU 12, 11.20 m) was installed at the back. The fender piles, that are
used to dissipate the energy of water movements caused by ship maneuvers and hence avoid ero-
sion at the bottom of the sheet pile wall were 1219.2 dia. X 16 mm steel pipes. Almost 16,500 t of
steel, manufactured by Profil ARBED (Luxembourg) was used in this Project.


+ 2.08
35.00 m
18.00 m
2.50 m
Clay
Peat
Sand / Gravel
r
a
k
i
n
g

p
i
l
e

H
T
M

6
0
0
/
1
3
6


1
:
1
.
3
boulder clay
Sand
Embankment
river ELBE
1:4
+7.50
+3.00
-16.70
-27.30
-29.70
cast-in-place
concrete piles
O 51cm, B35
inclinometer
P
U

1
2
sliding micrometer
+0.5
HZ 975B - 24 / AZ 18
-1.47
earth & pore-water
pressure cells
t
u
b
u
l
a
r

p
i
l
e

Figure 4. Container-Terminal Altenwerder (cross-section of section 10).

5 INSTALLED MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS
5.1 Introduction
The 'Amt fuer Strom- und Hafenbau' of the Free and Hanseatic Town of Hamburg assigned the task
to clarify the following problems:

Determination of wall deformations
Determination of the active earth pressure and for the first time the passive earth pressure onto
the wall
Determination of the working load (skin friction) and deformations of the raking piles

To carry out these extensive measurements successfully, multiple measurement systems were
installed in two different geological sections (section 10 / 20) of the construction (Fig. 4).
The measurements which were reproducible and controllable (inclinometer / sliding microme-
ter) were carried out once in each of these two sections. The electric earth pressure cells were car-
ried out twice per section to confirm their results.
6
5.2 Inclinometer
One inclinometer steel casing ( 50x50x4 mm) was welded onto the web of the middle H-beam of
the section to monitor the deflection and deformation of the wall under a load of earth pressure.
5.3 Earth pressure cells
Earth pressure cells or total pressure cells measure the combined pressure of effective stress and
pore-water pressure. For this reason, the combined total- and pore-water pressure cells were in-
stalled, where the total and the pore-water pressure can be measured at the same place. The effec-
tive stress is the difference between the two measured pressures.
In Altenwerder, the combined cells were placed in five different depths behind the wall (-3.50, -
8.0, -16.0, -21.0 and -26.0 m below mean sea level) and in two different depths in front of the wall
(-21.0 and -26.0 m below mean sea level). The electrical leads run in a casing borehole. The casing
between the steel pipes and the wall remains permanent after the digging of the embankment.
The deepest cells were placed in-situ ground. The cushions in the upper levels in the same bore-
hole were embedded in the back-filling (same density as the surrounding soil) with one layer of
Bentonite pellets as packing.
In the past the installation of these kind of earth pressure cells was done with a round linkage of
one meter length each. This installation has three disadvantages:

the parallel position of the cushions could not be guaranteed
the screw link for each segment has to be cleaned carefully
the short length of each screw link (1 m) requires more time to assemble

The IGBTUBS has developed an improved linkage to guarantee that the cells remain parallel to
the wall. Below are the specifications:

+ it is a square hollow section made of aluminum ( 80x80x4 mm)
+ the length of each segment is 3 m and has plug-in connections that save assembly time
+ it is very lightweight but with high stiffness that is needed to absorb the jacking forces
safely

The installation of the first earth pressure cells presented a problem: the friction of the cushion
wasn't high enough to disengage it from the linkage. The cushion was pulled out for every trial.
The remedial action by the IGBTUBS was to modify the cushions with four special wings each.
The wings (spring steel) were fixed at the upper face of the cushion to increase the resistance
(Fig. 5). After this modification all cushions were placed in successfully (Rodatz et. al, 1999).


Figure 5. Earth pressure cell with modified wings
7
During and after the construction stage, the electrical leads in every measurement section were
attached to battery operated Datatakers (Data Electronics, Australia). The Datatakers can supply
each instrument and store the data every 30 min. up to 8 weeks.
5.4 Sliding micrometer
The "Sliding micrometer" was developed at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland. The principle of this
measuring instrument is the distribution of a deformation quantity along a line. The principle ap-
plied here to obtain high precision in the readings is always a cone-sphere contact between the ref-
erence marks and the borehole probe. When a sphere contact the conical surface the position of the
center of the ball is uniquely defined. Thus the heads of the borehole probe are given a spherical
forms and the reference marks are cone-shaped. This is well illustrated Figure 6 for the case of the
Sliding Micrometer. The plastic casing contains ring-shaped coupling elements which in turn carry
the conical measuring marks. The whole casing is grouted into the borehole or concreted into the
dam successively during its erection. In order to be able to move the instrument along the borehole
from one measuring position to another the conical and spherical parts are not complete. By turning
the probe through 45 it is brought either to the measuring or to the sliding position, depending on
which position it was before (Figure 6). The accuracy one obtains for setting the instrument in a
measuring position is remarkably high. The relative displacement of two adjacent reference points
in the axial direction can be obtained with an actual precision of 3 m in the field. Considering the
base length of 1.00 m of the Sliding Micrometer this means a strain determination with an accuracy
of 3 x 10
-6
. Assume a modulus of elasticity of the steel E = 210,000 N/mm
2
. A change in stress may
be determined with an accuracy of approx. 0.70 N/mm
2
which is sufficient for practical purposes.
The portability of the borehole probe permits its calibration at any time. In fact a calibration frame
made of invar steel is provided in order to check the long-term stability of the LCDT sensor. Thus,
any shift of the zero point can be compensated.
To determine the size and development of the anchor strength in Altenwerder, the pipe casing
was grouted within two square channels (110x110x10 mm) which were weld onto the upper and
bottom level of the 46 m long inclined H-beam. Normally the anchor strength is determined with
strain gages at the top of the anchor. With the sliding micrometer measurements it is, as described
before, possible to determine the skin friction of the raking pile over its entire length. The bending
of the pile can also be determined with the inclinometer probe in the same pipe casing.



Figure 6. Schematical view of the sliding micrometer

Figure 7 shows the results of the calculated axial and skin friction forces from measured strains
for the raking pile in section 10. The measurements occurred at three dates after the zero point posi-
tion in February 2000. With a decrease of the slope embankment in front of the wall, the axial
forces increase to a maximum of 1800 kN just underneath the quay slab. This corresponds to the
calculated value. The more important result is the development of the skin friction. First the upper
8
sand layer activates the skin friction, but with increased strain the skin friction starts at the
sand/gravel layer (El. - 8.00 m).

0
400
800
1200
1600
2000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
length of raking pile [m]
a
x
i
a
l

f
o
r
c
e

[
k
N
]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
s
k
i
n

f
r
i
c
t
i
o
n

[
k
N
/
m

]
skin friction 00.04.27.
skin friction 00.07.12.
skin friction 00.10.12.
axial force 00.04.27.
axial force 00.07.12.
axial force 00.10.12.
landfill clay peat sand / gravel gravel sand

Figure 7. Idealized axial and calculated skin friction forces at the raking pile dependent on the cut of the em-
bankment slope in front of the wall (zero point position: 00.02.01)
6 CONCLUSIONS
The Altenwerder project is an example of extensive measuring and it shows the importance of the
selection of the correct measurement instruments and the installation of these instruments to moni-
tor the stress and deformation of the structure. While the site is still under construction and due to
the lack of space, only one result can be described in this report. All results will be evaluated using
a three-dimensional finite element analysis for the second phase. This allows the explanation of lo-
cal effects due to different construction stages. All results and interpretations will be published in
the near future at the IGBTUBS.
7 REFERENCES
Gattermann, J. 1998. Interpretation von geotechnischen Messungen an Kaimauern in einem Tidehafen, Mit-
teilung des IGBTUBS, 59.
Maybaum, G. 1996. Erddruckentwicklung auf eine in Schlitzwandbauweise hergestellte Kaimauer, Mit-
teilung des IGBTUBS, 52.
Rodatz, W., Maybaum, G. & Gattermann, J. 1995. Pressure and deformation measurements at two retaining
walls at the port of Hamburg, Proc. of the 4
th
Intern. Symposium Field Measurements in Geomechanics
(FMGM 95), Bergamo, Italy, 291-299.
Rodatz, W.; Gattermann, J. & Bergs, Th. 1999. Results of five monitoring networks to measure loads and de-
formations at different quay wall constructions in the port of Hamburg, Proc. of the 5
th
Intern. Symposium
Field Measurements in Geomechanics (FMGM 99) Singapore, 307-310.