Soldier Pile design with SPW911

[KCR]

I'm trying to model soldier pile as a sheet pile wall, using the arching factor(f), effective width etc. There is a 5-10 ft thick very stiff-hard clay layer at toe of the wall/pile. I'm not sure what values of K'a, K'p, K'ac and K'pc should be specified for the clay layer. I am assuming K'a = f x 1 and K'ac = f x 2 and K'p = 1/K'a and K'pc = 1/k'ac (or just K'p = f x 1 and K'pc = 1 x 2, again?), but am really not sure. Should I specify any values for K'ac and K'pc in the first place? I'm all confused with the mechanism behind these ka-kp and kac-kpc. Could anybody please help me with this modeling of Soldier pile with SPW911?

 

[jdonville]

KCR,

Use the AASHTO design pressures for catilevered walls with discrete elements to help guide your input into SPW911. Unfortunately, the program appears to have been written for continuous walls, so this is a bit tricky. Get somebody to check your inputs carefully.

Alternatively, you could do the calculations by hand. This is a bit tedious, but not horrible. See the California Trenching and Shoring Manual for example problems and solution methods. An excellent reference for this sort of thing.

As a last resort, you could buy a commercial program that explicitly supports discrete wall elements. I've used ct-shoring, but found it rather unpolished for the price. I believe that Ensoft also has a package.

Good luck,

Jeff


Jeffrey T. Donville, PE
TTL Associates, Inc.

http://www.ttlassoc.com

 

[Panars]

Pilebuck has an article on how to use their program for soldier pile walls. You can find it at

http://www.pilingsoftware.com/update.html

Basically, the upper portion of the wall is considered continuous (due to the lagging) and the passive earth pressures for the bottom portion are reduced by a ratio of the effective width over the actual soldier pile spacing.

 

[jdonville]

Panars,

I recall that trying to model the arching effect in SPW911 with layered foundation soils was terribly annoying - especially if one wanted to play a bit with the required Factor of Safety.

Jeff


Jeffrey T. Donville, PE
TTL Associates, Inc.

http://www.ttlassoc.com