Grout curtain

[newbuilder]

Does anybody have experience using grout curtains to stop the flow of water through a temporary sheet pile wall?

I have to design the sheet pile wall to support submerged FILL. Since there are many buildings around the excavation I am concerned that settlement will occur. I can adjust the strutting combinations to reduce the settlement associated with wall displacement. I am not sure if a grout curtain will prevent fines from seeping through the wall (interlocked sheetpiles or pipe piles).

Is it just an expensive luxury or will it work?

Thanx

Nb

 

[pyawitz]

Newbuilder,

You might look at using sealed Joints on your sheet piling wall, this method will provide sealed connecting joints between adjacent sections of in-ground sheet piling that forms a continuous barrier, which will minimize the migration of ground water and other liquids through this System. Please take a look at the provided link, and feel free to contacted me at any time for more detailed information.

http://www.sevenson.net/email/ses_email.htm

 

[touma]

sealed joints is definitely one way to look at it. A coule of questions/suggestions:

1. If the piles are in good shape, and driving is not particularly hard such as damage occurs to the clutches, I think you will have little to wor about settlement due to migration of fines through the seems especially that you intend to reduce the lateral displacement of the wall (thus reducing bulging and consequently potential opening of the clutch)

2. What kind of fill is it?? Did you have a chance to test and find the percentage of fines in it?? Just a thought.

 

[TimRichardson]

New Builder,

In generating engineering merits, using grout curtain can
1) Increase the factor of safety against base heaving
2) Reduce the seepage flowing into the excavation
Certainly, the sheet piles are assumed to be well interlocked which highly dependent on the workmanship.
Except the head difference between the front and back of sheet pile wall is very high, seepage and base heave usually is not a concern. However, I would suggest you to review the geological profile to identify any existing boulders and obstructions causing part of sheet pile cannot
penetrate to the design level. There are some case histories where the part of sheet pile obstruted by the boulders and the coarse sand retained behind flowing into the excavation through the holes and finally causing sinkhole formations at the back.
Hope it helps

 

[cs2679]

difference between effective stress properties and total stress properties


to use in design of earth dams

 

[PEinc]

For another type of steel sheet pile joint sealant, check with Skyline Steel Corporation and their Roxan System. Look up Adeka sealant also. Skyline's Roxan System uses Adeka. This appears to be simpler than Sevenson's system (refer to pyawitz's response above).

http://www.adeka.com

http://www.skylinesteel.com

Some sealants are applied to the joints in the field while others are delivered with the sealant already in the interlock joints. Quality control is better with shop applied.

 

[PEinc]

P.S.
I also recommend using hot-rolled sheet piling instead of cold-formed sheet piling. The hot-rolled sheets have a tighter, less pervious interlock. The joint sealant systems need the confinement of the tight interlock to provide an effective seal.

 

[DRC1]

If you are dewatering the excavation, you will locally lower the water table on the retained side of the sheeting. If the soils are soft or loose, you may observe settlement of adjacent structures. The only way to compensate for this is to do some sort of underpinning. Usually the sheeting will exclude the fines. I agree w/ PEinc the hot rolled will probably do better job. Joints can be sealed, but makes driving and pulling tougher. May want to consider grout curtian if you have areas that have troble sealing. As you get deeper the water head on the problem spots will get larger amplifing the problems, so any significant leaking should be addressed as soon as possible (all sheeting leaks to some extent). It is important to check the water infiltrating into the excavation for fines on a daily basis at all seep locations. If fines are noted the situation should be addressed right away. Make sure you get an experienced pile driving contractor. This sounds like a job that experience and quality will make more of a difference than price. Don't be afraid to to solicit advice from the pile driver. He can usually bring a lot to the party.

 

[Focht3]

You can also stabilize the groundwater level outside the excavation by re-injecting the water from the dewatering wells into the areas where dewatering could cause problems. This is an alternate approach where underpinning is either too expensive or not feasible.