Semiempirical Approach for Estimation of DDC-Induced Deflections of Sheet Pile Walls in Peat

Abstract

With an inclinometer casing mounted on a sheet pile wall in peat bogs, sheet pile wall deflections were measured during a trial deep dynamic compaction (DDC) test. Analyses of the trial testing data indicated that sheet pie wall deflections were significantly affected by the tamping distance, X , (horizontal distance between tamping points and sheet pile walls). The DDC-induced wall deflections can be simulated by an exponential relationship related to X . The trial testing results were verified by the finite-element (FE) simulation. The FE analyses indicated that sheet pile wall deflections were linearly proportional to the impact energy per blow, Ei . The analyses of surveyed data showed that sheet pile wall deflections due to DDC were also related to the ratio of the wall penetration depth in the underlying sands, dS , to the wall height, L . Based on these findings, a semiempirical approach, incorporating the key factors that govern the sheet pile wall deflections during DDC, was developed. The estima...