Excavation Supported by Cantilevered Sheet Pile Wall

Example prepared by: Christopher McGann and Pedro Arduino, University of Washington

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This article describes the simulation of an excavation supported by a cantilevered sheet pile wall using OpenSees. The model considers plane strain conditions in two-dimensions, using quadrilateral elements with a pressure dependent constitutive model to simulate cohesionless soil, and beam-column elements to simulate a unit width of sheet pile wall. Beam-solid contact elements are used to model a frictional interface between the linear beam elements and the quadrilateral soil elements.

The input file used for this example is available to view and/or download here.

• excavation.tcl

Model Description

Fig. 1: Undeformed FE mesh for the excavation model.

Fig. 2: Deformed FE mesh after completion of excavation.

Material and Element Definitions

Soil-Wall Interface

Fig. 3: Contact forces after completion of initial state analysis.

Fig. 4: Contact forces in final excavated configuration.

Representative Results

Fig. 5: Vertical stress distribution in final excavated configuration. (units are kPa)

Fig. 6: Horizontal stress distribution in final excavated configuration. (units are kPa)

Fig. 7: Shear stress distribution in final excavated configuration. (units are kPa)

Fig. 8: Bending moment diagram for sheet pile wall after excavation. (units are kNm)

Fig. 9: Shear force diagram for sheet pile wall after excavation. (units are kN)

Fig. 10: Animated deformation for excavation analysis. Contours show displacement magnitude.

Fig. 11: Animated moment diagram for excavation analysis.

Fig. 12: Animated contact forces for excavation analysis.

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