Chapter One

SHEET PILE WALLS

There are different types of retaining walls, for example:
a. gravity wall
b. cantilever wall (or L wall)
c. supported (thin) wall
d. gabion wall
Other types are the internally stabilized earth retaining structures:
f) reinforced soil
g) soil nailing
• Figure: common type retaining walls
• Gravity walls depend on the weight of their mass (stone, concrete or another
heavy material) to resist pressures from behind and will often have a slight
'batter' setback, to improve stability by leaning back into the retained soil.
• Short landscaping walls are often made from mortarless stone or segmental
concrete units (masonry units). Dry-stacked gravity walls are somewhat
flexible and do not require a rigid footing in frost areas.
• Cantilevered retaining walls are made from an internal stem of steel-
reinforced, cast-in-place concrete or mortared masonry (often in the shape of
an L or inverted T).
• These walls cantilever loads (like a beam) to a large, structural footing,
converting horizontal pressures from behind the wall to vertical pressures on
the ground below.
• This type of wall uses much less material than traditional gravity walls.
• Today, taller retaining walls are increasingly built as composite gravity walls
such as: geosynthetic or with precast facing; gabions (stacked steel wire baskets
filled with rocks:,or soil-nailed walls (soil reinforced in place with steel and
concrete rods).
• The thin walls are usually sheet pile walls. Sheet pile retaining walls are
typically used in soft soils and tight spaces. Sheet pile walls are made out of
steel, vinyl or wood planks which are driven into the ground.
• Taller sheet pile walls will need a tie-back anchor, or "dead-man" placed in the
soil a distance behind the face of the wall, which is tied to the wall, usually by a
cable or a rod. Struts are also possible if there is an opposite wall nearby.
• These walls all have different advantages and disadvantages, but a big difference
between the thin wall and the others types, is that a thin wall can be installed
before a lot of ground has been removed. Therefore these are commonly used
for building pits.
There are several types of thin walls:
• Soldier pile wall (Berliner wall)
• Sheet pile wall
• Combi wall
• Bored pile wall
• Diaphragm wall
Soldier pile wall (Berliner wall)

The soldier pile wall is the easiest way to make a wall. At a few meters distance from each
other, a hole is bored in the ground. Steel profiles are installed and mostly grouted at the
footing of the profiles to decrease deformations later. During the excavations, wooden beams
are installed, starting at the top. Anchors can also be installed and connected to the vertical
profiles.
Sheet pile wall
• The sheet pile wall is frequently used. It is a bent sheet of steel (can also sometimes be
concrete) which is designed to hold the bending moments and to be waterproof.
Installation is mostly through impact driving or vibratory driving. Both the vibratory
driving and more so the impact driving cause vibrations. If this creates too much damage
or nuisance, the sheet pile can be pressed (however only in very soft soils) or cannot be
used at all. Also if the ground resistance is too high, it is better to use a bored pile wall or
diaphragm wall.
Combi wall
• The combi wall is similar to the sheet pile wall, it is composed of one or two sheet piles
and then one round pile (pipe) in a constant pattern. The benefit is that this sheet-pipe
combination is far stiffer and stronger than only a sheet pile. Therefore, this is used for
deep excavations or large differences in ground level, for example at quays in harbors.
• Bored pile wall
• Large and small diameter bored cast-in-place piles are often used to construct efficient and
economic temporary or permanent retaining walls. They are especially useful at those
places where the ground is too hard for sheet pile driving or where vibration nuisance
should be avoided. The wall consists of interlocking bored piles. Primary piles are
constructed first. Secondary piles, formed in structural reinforced concrete, are then
installed between the primary piles with a typical interlock of 150 mm. These walls may
need a reinforced concrete lining for permanent works applications, depending on the
expected bending moments.
Diaphragm wall
• Diaphragm walls are concrete or reinforced concrete walls constructed in slurry-supported,
open trenches in the ground. The walls are usually excavated under bentonite slurry.
• There are two types of diaphragm walls:
• cast-in-place diaphragm walls; these are made from liquid concrete placed by using the
tremie installation method, and the
• pre-cast diaphragm walls; which are made by installing pre-cast concrete panels.
Design and analysis of sheet pile wall
• Sheet pile walls are types of retaining structure
• Used when conventional type of retaining wall is inappropriate
• Used for water front structures ,temporary structures
• For beach erosion protection;
• for stabilizing ground slopes, In high way
• for shoring walls of trenches other excavations;
• They are defer from retaining walls mainly
• For water front construction
• No dewatering is required
• Have high salvage value
• Small amount of soil displaced etc.
 Type of sheet pile
Timber sheet pile
• Low strength so that for small height
• They decay faster unless treated
• Cheap
• Joined with butted end , Tongue and groove ,and metal spline
• Driving in hard or gravelly soil tends to damage or even split the pile tip
Reinforced concrete sheet pile
• High strength
• Heavy to handling and driving
• Joined with tongue and groove joint or double grooved ends
Steel sheet pile wall
• The most common type used for walls
• High strength used for big height
• Light weight so that easy to drive and handle
• High salvage value i.e can be used repeatedly
• It has a long service life either above or below water
• Thumb-and-finger and ball-and-socket
• Section Properties
Classification based on Method of driving resistance
Cantilever sheet pile
• They are vertical cantilever
• Drive their resistance by cantilever action
• They must be driven to sufficient depth and strong soil
• Moderate height up to 6m
Anchored sheet pile
• Drive their resistance by embedment in the ground and use of tie rods
near the top
• For moderate to high walls
• Minimize the depth of penetration
• The tie rod and anchors must be
Carefully designed
 Analysis and design
• Determining the embedment depth and selection of safe and economical section for the sheet pile
Cantilever sheet pile penetrating sand
Cantilever sheet pile penetrating clay
 Anchored sheet pile
Anchors minimize the depth of penetration required by the sheet piles and also reduce
the cross-sectional area and weight of the sheet piles needed for construction.
However, the tie rods and anchors must be carefully designed.
pre
 Stability
• Sheet pile bending
• Anchor rod
anchorage failure
• Toe (Kick out) failure
• System failure
 Type of anchorage
• Plate
• Beam
• Block
• Pile
• Tie back
 Placement of anchorage
• The resistance offered by anchor plate or beam is derived primarily from the passive force
of the soil located in front of them
• Figure below a, in which AB is the sheet-pile wall, shows the best location for
maximum efficiency of an anchor plate. If the anchor is placed inside wedge ABC,
which is the Rankine active zone, it would not provide any resistance to failure.
• Alternatively, the anchor could be placed in zone CFEH. Note that line DFG is the
slip line for the Rankine passive pressure.
• If part of the passive wedge is located inside the active wedge ABC, full passive
resistance of the anchor cannot be realized upon failure of the sheet-pile wall.
• However, if the anchor is placed in zone ICH, the Rankine passive zone in front of
the anchor slab or plate is located completely outside the Rankine active zone
ABC. In this case, full passive resistance from the anchor can be realized.
• Figures b, c, and d also show the proper locations for the placement of tiebacks,
vertical anchor piles, and anchor beams supported by batter piles.
The intensity of the active pressure at a depth Z=L1
is

Similarly, the active pressure at a depth Z= L1+L2 (i.e., at the level of the dredge
line) is

The net lateral pressure below the dredge line up to the point of
rotation, O,
Combining the above Eqs. yields the net lateral pressure, namely,
Combining the above Eqs. and simplifying them further, we obtain the following
fourth-degree equation in terms of L4 :
• Exercise the examples
Assignment 1
cantilever

4m
 BRACED CUTS
• Sometimes construction work requires ground excavations with vertical or near-vertical
faces
• for example, basements of buildings in developed areas or underground transportation
facilities at shallow depths below the ground surface (a cut-and-cover type of
construction).
• The vertical cuts need to be protected by temporary bracing systems to avoid failure that
may be accompanied by considerable settlement or by bearing capacity failure of nearby
foundations
• two types of braced cut commonly used in construction work.
• One type uses the soldier beam, which is driven into the ground before excavation and is
a vertical steel or timber beam.
• Laggings, which are horizontal timber planks, are placed between soldier beams as the
excavation proceeds.
• When the excavation reaches the desired depth, wales and struts (horizontal steel
beams) are installed.
• The struts are compression members.
• For second type, interlocking sheet piles are driven into the soil before excavation.
• Wales and struts are inserted immediately after excavation reaches the appropriate
depth.
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Types of braced cut: (a) use of soldier beams; (b) use of sheet piles
• If the width of a deep excavation is too great to permit economical use of
struts across the entire excavation, tiebacks are often used as an alternative to
cross-bracings as shown in Fig. below. Therefor, there is no hindrance to the
construction activity to be carried out inside the excavated area.
• The tieback is a rod or a cable connected to sheeting or lagging on one side
and anchored in to the soil at the back.
• Inclined holes are drilled into the soil outside the sheeting or H piles.
• Tensile reinforcement is then inserted and concreted into the hole.
• An enlargement or a bell is usually formed at the end of the hole.
• Each tieback is usually pre-stressed before the depth of excavation is
increased.
• During the excavation process followed by the placement of struts, the upper portion
of the soil mass next to the cut does not undergo sufficient lateral deformation.
• However, as the depth of excavation increases, the time lag between the excavation
and placement of struts increases, also resulting in a gradual increase in the lateral
deformation of wall.
• Ideally, at the end of excavation, the wall will be deformed to the shape shown.
• The lateral earth-pressure distribution along wall will be of the nature
• It is important to note the following:
The wall rotates about top (i.e., rotation about the top).
• At the top, the lateral earth pressure will be close to the at-rest earth pressure
• At the bottom, the lateral earth pressure may be less than the Rankine active earth
pressure.
(The deformation of the wall is large, and the soil may be in a state well past the
plastic equilibrium.)
• Hence, the lateral earth-pressure diagram will approximate to the form, as shown
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 Pressure Envelope for Cuts in Layered Soil
Sometimes, layers of both sand and clay are encountered when a braced cut is
being constructed. In this case, Peck (1943) proposed that an equivalent value
of cohesion (ϕ = 0) should be determined according to the formula
 Struts
A simplified conservative procedure may be used to determine the strut loads. Although this
procedure will vary, depending on the engineers involved in the project, the following is a step-by-
step outline of the general methodology
Step 1. Draw the pressure envelope for the braced cut.
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