Wall friction and its affect on sheet piles

[Zack L]

Hello, I have some conflicting opinions in the office on the use of passive wall friction in steel sheet pile shoring design. One of the engineers uses it, the other does not. This obviously is a big factor in reducing soil pressures on the system. We use CivilTech Shoring Suite for most of our design. My question is, does anyone else use pass wall friction in their design? This requires the coulomb equation. Or does everyone ignore it. It is my understanding that wall friction cannot be used in wet cohesive soils such as silt and clay. Maybe I am wrong?

I appreciate any and all answers. Thank you for your time.

 

[HTURKAK]

It is my understanding that wall friction cannot be used in wet cohesive soils such as silt and clay. Maybe I am wrong?

But you know that , there is friction at both sides ( passive and active side) . This is long discussion and you can imagine that the wall friction is mobilised when the wall and soil move in relation to each other . Ignoring the wall friction will keep the design on safe side . However some standards (e.g. Eurocode EN 1997 )allows the use of wall friction and this may make sense for large scale projects.
I will suggest you;
- Delete this post and write at geotechnical group , earth retention eng.,
- Review the following doc. to see the use of wall friction concept at different cases.

 

[EireChch]

Arcerlormittal literally wrote the book on sheet piling. They, CIRICA C760, EC7 etc all allow use of wall friction, no matter which side.