Effect of construction sequence and soil nonlinearity on the behavior of sheet pile walls

Abstract EN

This study deals with assessing the behavior of a sheet pile wall by estimating the stresses and displacements of the sheet pile wall and surrounding soil throughout the different construction stages.

The finite element method is used to carry out a comparison study to assess the effect of the soil nonlinearity on the behavior of sheet pile wall.

The nonlinear hyperbolic model is used to represent both the soil and interface behavior of soil-sheet pile wall system.

The analysis of sheet pile wall was carried out using a nonlinear incremental stress dependent finite element computer program capable of simulating the different construction stages of the system.

It was found that increasing excavation depth reduces both active and passive pressures below that calculated by Rankine theory and that shear stresses concentrate around sheet pile wall and increase with increasing excavation depth.

It also noticed that adopting nonlinear soil properties leads to a more economical design of the sheet pile walls.