## 5 Conclusions  
Based on the Jurong Yangtze River water intake project, the three-dimensional numerical finite element Plaxis was adopted to analyze the lateral load bearing characteristics of an open caisson. The influence of the disturbance ring on the deformation characteristics of the caisson was investigated. Further, the reinforcement effects under different reinforcement schemes were analyzed. The main conclusions are as follows:  
1. With the increase in the thickness of the disturbance ring, the horizontal stiffness of the caisson will gradually weaken. However, when the thickness of the disturbance ring is within 0.5 m, the effect of the disturbance ring on the load-horizontal displacement curve of the caisson will be reduced.
2. Under the action of horizontal load, the horizontal displacement of the caisson structure will manifest as rigid rotational deformation along the depth, and the position of the rotation center decreases with the increase in the thickness of the disturbance ring. When the thickness of the disturbance ring exceeds 1 m, the rotation center is basically stable at the depth of 0.2 times the caisson embedment depth.
3. The horizontal stiffness of the caisson increases with the thickness of the reinforcement. However, when the thickness of the reinforcement is more than twice the thickness of the disturbance ring, the lateral bearing capacity of the caisson will not be further improved by increasing the thickness of the reinforcement.
4. With the increase in the reinforcement angle, the horizontal stiffness of the caisson is increased gradually. When the reinforcement angle is greater than 60\({}^{\circ}\), increasing the reinforcement angle has little effect on reducing the caisson horizontal displacement.  
Figure 14: The distribution curve of lateral displacement along the depth of a caisson with different reinforcement angles.  
Figure 13: The load–lateral displacement curve of a caisson with different reinforcement angles.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.-H.W. and R.-P.L.; methodology, A.-H.W. and R.-P.L.; software, Y.-F.Z.; validation, Y.-F.Z. and F.X.; formal analysis, Y.-F.Z. and F.X.; investigation, F.X.; resources, Y.-F.Z. and F.X.; data curation, N.W.; writing--original draft preparation, R.-P.L.; writing--review and editing, R.-P.L.; visualization, Y.-F.Z. and F.X.; supervision, R.-P.L. and N.W.; project administration, A.-H.W. and R.-P.L.; funding acquisition, A.-H.W. and R.-P.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51868021, 52168047), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (Grant No. BK20210051), Science & Technology Project of the Education Department of Jiangxi Province (Nos. GJJ200637).  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Acknowledgments:** Our deepest gratitude goes to the anonymous reviewers for their careful work and thoughtful suggestions that have helped improve this paper. The research herein was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China and Science & Technology Project of the Education Department of Jiangxi Province. Their supports are gratefully acknowledged.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.