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Active earth pressure shielding in quay wall constructions: numerical modeling

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Abstract

By designing a quay wall construction the calculation of the active earth pressure behind the sheet pile wall is often a problem. Measurements and FE-analyses have shown that the earth pressure on a sheet pile wall is shielded due to the dowel effect of the pile rows behind the sheet piling. In conventional calculations a higher friction angle is used to take the dowel effect into account. In this study, numerical modeling using the Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian method has been carried out to investigate the shielding effect of pile rows on the active earth pressure in sand. The failure mechanisms have been illustrated using the shear band patterns at the limit state. Based on the Terzaghi’s arching theory a new approach has been developed to estimate the shielding effect.

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Acknowledgments

The present work has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the framework of the research training group GRK 1096 “Ports for Container Ships of Future Generations”. The authors thank the DFG for funding this work. Furthermore, the authors appreciate the academic use of the commercial program Abaqus.

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  1. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Gang Qiu & Jürgen Grabe

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  1. Gang Qiu
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Correspondence to Gang Qiu.

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Qiu, G., Grabe, J. Active earth pressure shielding in quay wall constructions: numerical modeling. Acta Geotech. 7, 343–355 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-012-0186-3

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