Influence of surcharge strip loads on the behavior of cantilever sheet pile walls: A numerical study
Abhijit Debnath, Sujit Kumar Pal
Abstract
Cantilever sheet pile walls are extensively applied in a deep excavation in congested urban areas adjacent to existing structures. In the present study, a two-dimensional nonlinear finite element method has been implemented to analyze the behavior of sheet piles under a uniform surcharge strip foundation load in the sand. Sequential excavation of frontfill soil is done in layers to incorporate the construction effects during wall installation. The wall deflection and bending moment are determined with varying surcharge widths and positions on the backfill surface from the wall. A parametric study is also performed by varying the parameters such as the surcharge magnitude, surcharge positions in the horizontal direction over the backfill and in the vertical direction along the sheet pile wall depth, depth of loose soil layers, and the dredge line slope angle to determine the wall deflection, bending moment, and ground settlement behavior and found significantly affected by the parameters. Results show that for a dredge line slope inclination of 30⁰, the maximum wall deflection, bending moment, and ground settlement become 4.46, 2.44, and 3.58 times higher respectively, than the horizontal dredge line for a 125 kPa surcharge load.