The Influence Depth of Pile Base Resistance in Sand-Layered Clay
Pengwei Zhang
Grzegorz Kacprzak
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript has conducted some field tests in sand and clay, and the data are meaningful for evaluating the ultimate bearing capacity. Following are several suggestions for the authors to refine the work.
(1) font in Figure 1 shoud be kept in consistency;
(2) Figure 5 conveys few information, the boudary condition, pile position should be included;
(3) Since the authors compared 10 types of methods for calculating unit pile base resistance, Figure 6 only verifies with API seems not sufficient;
(4) Figure 8, why the figure of 0.5D does not match with other cases;
(5) Figure 12, why 0.1D has much higher Base resisitance than other cases, cannot find this phenomenon in other figures.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions. The attachment contains comments and responses, as well as the revised manuscript. Please see the attachment, thank you.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper compares different methods for estimating the influence depth of pile base resistance. By conducting numerical similations in sand-layered clay, the base resistance and influence depth have also been summarized. The paper is well-structured. But the following comments shall be taken into account for revision:
1. Symbols in Table 3 are not all explained.
2. Pile tip or pile end shall be consistent
3. Please revise the experession of 33-130m and 49-80m ihe paragraph after table 4, the
4. Schmertmann method was not considered after fig.4（c）, why；
5. The first paragraph in page 6, it shall be 'in these methods'. Please specify the European method
6. Please specify the pile in page 7. The figure 5 is too vague.
7. Please double check grammatics and spelling errors, for example, page 10 'pile tip '.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions. The attachment contains comments and responses, as well as the revised manuscript. Please see the attachment, thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
In this work, the influence range of pile base resistance is studied in homogeneous clay and sand-layered clay, and some valued results have been obtained. In general, the research content of this paper is innovative, and it is recommended to accept the paper. Some arguments listed below just for reference.
(1) In 3.3.1 part, what is the sand Thickness? The author should give a complete description.
(2) Again, in 3.4.1 part, what is the sand Thickness?
If the author can give a schematic, the presentation may be better.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions. The attachment contains comments and responses, as well as the revised manuscript. Please see the attachment, thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
The presented article is interesting and structured. It presents a logical sequence of cause and effect with elements of a historical introduction. The discussed issue is important from the point of view of geoengineering. It is very reasonable to conduct a numerical analysis of the authors.
However, the authors should read the following comments:
- extend the bibliography by at least 6 items
- broaden the introduction and literature recognition. There is a lack of current data and diagnosis from publications after 2018
- correct picture 5. It is completely illegible!!!!
- improve the readability of drawings - edit them in accordance with the guidelines of the publisher
- increase the readability of Figure 9
- correct errors in English
- increase the quality of figures 12 and 13 and enlarge
- add a space between numbers and units, e.g. 10.0 m -> 10.0 m
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions. The attachment contains comments and responses, as well as the revised manuscript. Please see the attachment, thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
I have no more comments
Author Response
Thank you for your valuable suggestions earlier.
