The initial yield surface of marine structural clay was obtained by laboratory tests.The similarity of initial yield surfaces of marine clay at different depth was considered in the process of numerical analysis of structural constitutive model.Relationships between marine clay yield and ground settlement were discussed based on the comparison of numerical analysis results with actual measurement data.The results show that the structural constitutive model is suitable for numerical simulation of marine structural clay ground settlement problems.The yield of structural clay develops gradually from shallow to deep in ground

which may lead to difficulty in discrimination of the turning point on curves of relationship between settlement

time and embankment fill height.The method which is used to decide the critical height of embankment by observing the settlement curves shape might be difficult to implement.