Analysis of Anchored Sheet Pile Wall Deformations

Sheet pile walls are one of the oldest earth retention systems utilized in civil engineering projects. The conventional methods used in the design of sheet pile walls are based on the limit equilibrium approach using active and passive earth pressures. These methods, based on force and moment equilibrium, do not consider wall deformations, which are important for serviceability considerations. For varying soil conditions and wall heights, effects of anchor location, sheet pile stiffness, anchor stiffness, and number of anchors on wall and soil deformations were studied. The free earth support method was used to calculate penetration depths of single-anchored walls for varying soil conditions and wall heights. Using these calculated penetration depths a parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of parameters considered on wall and soil deformations. Analyses were performed using the finite element method. The analysis results show that while having multiple anchor levels is the most efficient way to reduce wall and soil deformations, using pile profiles larger than the one required by the structural design can also be very effective. This paper presents the results and findings of the parametric study performed.