Seepage into Sheet Pile Cofferdam

It has been shown that the Weirstrass zeta function transforms a rectangle conformally into the geometry of a sheet pile cofferdam. A study of the relevant properties of this and the corresponding P-function is presented for the determination of the seepage flux, exit gradient, heaving gradient and the complete potential and velocity distribution for the steady seepage flow into the cofferdam. By a simple modification of the zeta function, a general transformation function to solve for widely different geometrical shapes of the cofferdams has been deduced. A review of the earlier solutions of this problem is given. A comparative study of all the solutions would seem to indicate that the zeta function of Weirstrass is particularly well-suited to the solution of this seepage problem.