Improved Double-Layer Soil Consolidation Theory and Its Application in Marine Soft Soil Engineering
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
accepted
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thank you for your useful comments and suggestions on our manuscript.
Toward the comments, we have read carefully, done corresponding modification and supplement.
The details can be seen in “Response to Reviewers 1 Comments”.
Sincerely yours,
Deqiang Chen
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper discusses the double-layer soil consolidation theory and its application in the realization of engineering structures on weak marine soils. The literature review in Introduction and in Discussion are sufficient. Test procedure is logical. The considered issue is very interesting and has a great practical application. However, the quality of the manuscript suffers from its poor presentation. Essentially the paper is very poorly written with bad English which makes it difficult to understand the whole text. For this reason, the manuscript requires major modifications before it can be accepted for publication.
GENERAL COMMENTS:
1. Lack of the numbering of all equations.
2. Only the author’s names are often written and after that there is not reference to literature.
3. Compression modulus or compressive modulus?
4. Lack of the detailed information about the soil parameters (compression modulus, permeability coefficient etc.). Where are these parameters from? They are from what research? Who set these parameters?
5. Lack of the basic physical soil parameters, e.g.: liquidity limit, soil plasticity index, etc.
SPECIFIC COMMENTS:
1. Bad English (a few examples):
Page 3, line 121; “In the figure, q(t) is an arbitrary loading function. h1, h2, Es1, Es2, k1, and k2 are the upper layers.”:
Poorly formulated idea. ‘h1, h2, Es1, Es2, k1, and k2’ - these are not the upper layers, but the parameters describing them.
Page 3, line 121-122; “And the thickness, compressive modulus, and permeability coefficient of the subsoil.”:
Incorrect sentence. In addition, are you sure that you used the correct module name?
Page 6, line 153:
Instead of “formula ” you should write “formulas”.
Page 9, lines 218 – 219:
“Under the condition of impervious bottom and semi-permeable top, how long will it take for the total average consolidation degree to reach 70%? . And a t-U curve is made.” - How should it be understood?
2. Page 4, line 130:
Instead of “Therefore, a one-dimensional consolidation differential equation for (…) ” you should write “Therefore, a one-dimensional consolidation differential equations for” - because there are 2 equations below.
3. Page 7, lines 187 - 188:
“According to the data in Table 1, (…) program compiled by the author, (…)” – Which author?
4. Page 11, line 273; “Calculation parameters of marine soft soil double-layer foundation structure in Guangxi”:
How should it be understood? How were the soil parameters calculated? Have any laboratory tests been performed?
5. Page 15, lines 334 – 335:
Instead of “Based on (…) to verify this thory. ” you should write “Based on (…) to verify this theory.”
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thank you for your useful comments and suggestions on our manuscript.
Toward the comments, we have read carefully, done corresponding modification and supplement.
The details can be seen in “Response to Reviewer 2 Comments”.
Sincerely yours,
Deqiang Chen
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
General comments: This paper presents a numerical solution for consolidation analysis of a marine double-soil deposits. The method was developed based on Terzaghi’s consolidation and continuous drainage boundary theory. The paper is generally well written. The solution can improve consolidation solution of double-layer with partially drainage boundary, which is a great advancement compared to all available methods. The improved solution also was validate in field data. The research results can also provide useful basic information for marine soft foundation engineering. This paper should be accepted in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, but some revision is needed. The comments were mentioned below.
This topic is not new and Literature Part should be added some information of previous researches, I can recommend these papers as follows:
Feng Jianxue, Ni Pengpeng and Mei Guoxiong (2019). “One‐dimensional self‐weight consolidation with continuous drainage boundary conditions: Solution and application to clay‐drain reclamation.”Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech.;1–19 DOI: 10.1002/nag.2928.
Zhang Yi, Wu Wenbing, Mei Guoxiong and Duan Longchen (2019) “Three-dimensional consolidation theory of vertical drain based on continuous drainage boundary.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Managemen 25(2): 145–155.
Sun Ming, Zong Meng-fan, Ma Shao-Jun, Wu Wen-bing and Liang Rong-zhu (2018). “Analytical Solution for One-Dimensional Consolidation of Soil with Exponentially Time-Growing Drainage Boundary under a Ramp Load.” Mathematical Problems in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9385615.
….
“completely permeable boundary condition” in paper should be read as “perfectly permeable boundary condition”.
Firstly, authors should be defined what is the continuous boundary? In my opinion, Continuous drainage boundary is a time‐dependent interface boundary varying between perfectly pervious and impervious conditions. Subsequently discuss some weak points in previous studies.
Line 47-48: “In view of the unreasonable drainage boundary.” Should be delete. This is unreasonable sentence in manuscript.
Line 71-75: Authors should check
Eq. (1) and Eq.(2) are not new, so authors should cite from other paper (example: Miao et al. (2010)
Line 134: what is rw? this is wrong. rw should read as .
Line 140-141: Author should indicate that b and c are interface parameters which reflect the drainage properties of the top and bottom drainage surfaces of soil layer (Sun et al. 2018). Then should discuss what happen when b and c change?
Line 153: “In the formula:” should read as “ where”.
Explain factor i and k in Eq. (21).
In Eq. (21). Please explain why N was chosen with N=8? If N value change to other values, what happen? If no, please discuss the results with N=8.
How to check degree consolidation of soft deposits in layer 1, layer 2, separately in the cases of verifications? After that we can compare to other traditional solutions (Ong et al. 2012; Miao et al. 2010; Xie et al. 1989).
In Figure 4, please explain why from 0 to 1185 days, the results obtained from proposed method overestimates Xie’s data.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thank you for your useful comments and suggestions on our manuscript.
Toward the comments, we have read carefully, done corresponding modification and supplement.
The details can be seen in “Response to Reviewer 3 Comments”.
Sincerely yours,
Deqiang Chen
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
No further comments.
I thank the Authors for take account of all my comments and suggestions. Now the manuscript has been significantly improved. In my opinion the paper at present form is complete and I recommend it for publication in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your approval of our revised manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for your positive responses to my comments.
In the submitted manuscript, the authors proposed a numerical solution for consolidation analysis of a marine double-soil deposits. The method was developed based on Terzaghi’s consolidation and continuous drainage boundary theory. The solution can improve consolidation solution of double-layer with partially drainage boundary, which is a great advancement compared to all available methods. The improved solution also was validate in field data. The research results can also provide useful basic information for marine soft foundation engineering.
In the revised manuscript, the authors have successfully modified the text according to the reviewers' comments and now it became much better than the original submission. However, the authors should check and modify again how to write a citation and Reference Part. The below comments are required in a new revision before it can be accepted in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
Author should check again how to write a citation in academic manuscript.
Authors should note how to write a citation in “Reference Part”
For example: In citation [41], authors wrote as:
“Yi Z, Wen-Bing W, Guo-Xiong M ,et al. Three-dimensional consolidation theory of vertical drain
based on continuous drainage boundary[J]. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2019, 25(2): 145–155”
This is a mistake, should be read as: Zhang Yi, Wu Wenbing, Mei Guoxiong and Duan Longchen (2019) “Three-dimensional consolidation theory of vertical drain based on continuous drainage boundary.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Managemen 25(2): 145–155.”
This mistake is many showed in manuscript, so please check every thing.
In Line 94: “Zhang [41]” should be read as “Zhang et al. [41]”. Please check again this mistake in all in manuscript.
To fix above mistakes, please refer following paper:
Nguyen, B-P., Yun D-H. and Kim, Y-T. (2018). “An equivalent plane strain model of PVD-improved soft deposit” Computers and Geotechnics, (103),32-42
Please use the same symbol in manuscript. For example, parameters a, b, c in manuscript are italic font. In Line 260, b, c fonts are not reasonable. Author’s expression is not logical in academic manuscript. Thus, please check again every part in manuscript. Before It can be accepted.
Line 87: “Cai [37] developed an ABAQUS subroutine to verify the solution of the one-dimensional consolidation equation of the continuous drainage boundary.”
Should reads as “Cai et al. [37] developed an subroutine within ABAQUS program to verify the solution of the one-dimensional consolidation equation of the continuous drainage boundary.”
Please add water table level in Figure 8.
To avoid misunderstand for reader, should delete “N” (SPT), in Table 4. Because N value in this manuscript is positive even number.
Stress induced by external load typically change with depth in thick ground. Therefore, authors should add an assumption of uniform stress in ground under Line 139.
Because aim of this manuscript also provide useful basic information for marine soft foundation engineering. Relating to engineering characteristic of marine soft soil, I suggest authors should add/cite information of following paper:
Kim, Y-T., Nguyen, B-P., Yun D-H. (2018). “Effect of Artesian Pressure on Consolidation Behavior of Drainage-Installed Marine Clay Deposit.” ASCE’s Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. 30(8). 04018156.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thank you for your useful comments and suggestions on our manuscript.
Toward the comments, we have read carefully, done corresponding modification and supplement.
The details can be seen in “Response to Reviewer 3 Comments”. Sincerely yours,
Deqiang Chen
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
