Approach to Designing Structural Slurry Walls

Some of the deepest structural slurry walls in the world were designed for permanent training walls at the Dam No. 2 Hydropower Project on the Arkansas River. Each of the 152 wall panels had to be optimized for embedment, length, section type, and restraining system. Compatibility for deflection and load transfer of adjacent panels was an integral part in designing individual structural slurry wall panels to behave as a system of panels. Design of the structural slurry walls utilized the computer program RIDO to analyze the deflection, shear, and moment under construction and operation conditions. Structural requirements for the design based on the RIDO analyses were checked using STAAD-III. A third program (SOILSTRUCT) was used to verify the 2D global deformation of the proposed structural slurry wall system. Analyses and design had to be completed in a short 9-month time frame. This paper presents the design methodology, approach, and procedures for optimization of the structural slurry wall system required to make this project a reality.