Study On Interaction Of Soil And Structure Of Sheet-pile Bulkhead With Raked Piles

Sheet-pile bulkheads are frequently used in marine engineering as a viable andeconomical solution to waterfront construction. The sheet-pile bulkheads anchored byraked piles are widely recommended because of its simplicity of construction and itsadaptability in small room. They were introduced to China in the early 1970s, andhave been recognized and used in the construction of new harbor and in the renewalof old port. As the knowledge of work mechanism is not sufficient, it is difficult torevise the design method for this type of sheet-pile bulkhead to make it perfect.Firstly, review is done on the history of sheet-pile bulkhead as well as on the featuresof anchored sheet-pile bulkheads. Concerning the design of sheet-pile walls anchoredby raked piles, earth pressure theories and their state of the art are commented,indicating the revisal work to be done. And the principles and measurement ingeotechnical centrifugal modeling are presented.Secondly, 6 centrifuge model tests are performed to investigate the earth pressureagainst wall by a soil wedge which is steeper than the wedge at rest. Based on the testresults, a modified Column earth pressure theory is proposed to enable it to calculatethe earth pressure by soil wedge steeper than angle of repose.Thirdly, 8 centrifuge model tests are conducted to investigate the influence on thebehavior of sheet-pile bulkheads anchored by raked piles of the retaining height, theinclination of raked piles and their span. Therefore, the earth pressure against twosides of the front wall and the raked piles, their bending moment and axial pullingforce in the raked piles are summarized and characterized. These data are veryimportant to build up a new design theory.Finally, a numerical modeling by finite element analysis is done against aprototype case modeled, which is a sheet-pile bulkhead of 8 m in retaining heightanchored by raked piles with 1:1 in inclination and 3 m in span. The calculated resultsare in agreement with the measured ones by centrifuge modeling. Therefore, thenumerical modeling offers a new insight into the interaction mechanism about thisstructure.