Sheet pile wall system is considered one of the oldest common earth retention systems used in civil engineering projects. The common methods used in the design of sheet pile walls were based on the limit equilibrium approach using active and passive earth pressures. These methods - based on force and moment equilibrium- don't consider wall deformations, which are very important for achieving serviceability.
An extensive parametric study through the finite element program, PLAXIS version 8.6 was carried out to investigate the behavior of inclined anchored sheet pile walls, studying the effect of varying the inclination of tie, and effect of elevation of tie for different sand soil types, wall height, effect of ground water table to show the effect on horizontal wall displacements, maximum wall bending moments, and anchor force for all cases. The minimum values of the wall penetration depth, unbonded length and bonded length were set to satisfy the requirements of the instructions of (FHWA). Analyses were performed using the finite element method. The analysis results show that the increase in the inclination of tie (ϴ) up to 20° decreases the maximum bending moments and maximum horizontal displacements of wall, but slightly increases the anchor force. after that, by increasing the inclination of tie (ϴ) the maximum bending moments, the horizontal displacements of wall and the anchor force increase. Generally, its recommended that the angle of inclination of tie doesn’t exceed 20 degrees. and for best angle of inclination 20 degrees is recommended. From observations of studying variation of tie elevation, it was concluded that increasing the elevation of tie (d/H) from the top of wall generally enhances the performance of the structure Maximum Wall Bending Moment and Maximum Horizontal Displacement decrease but increases the anchor force. And also, it was concluded that the best elevation of tie for bending moments is between 0.2 H - 0.3H from the top of the wall.
|
