Investigation of installation caused interlocking failure of combined steel sheet piles

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Grabe
• Subject Area: Geotechnics, Hydraulic Engineering
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 249022811

Steel sheet piles are used in geotechnics for retaining and quay wall constructions amongst others. The design of such sheet piles is based on structural analysis for construction and operational states. Manufacturing caused impacts due to pressing, vibratory pile driving and pile driving are not considered. Especially at highly loaded combined sheet pile walls of modern quay wall constructions often failures of sheet pile interlocking occur. Examples are Maasvlakte I at Rotterdam, Neue Kaiserschleuse at Bremerhaven and the JadeWeserPort (JWP) at Wilhelmshaven. In the framework of the proposed project the total loading of sheet piles are studied including impacts due to installation processes based on theoretical and numerical investigations. This includes investigations of the role of pile driving guide, of heat generation due to pile driving, and of spatial distribution of earth and water pressure acting on sheet pile walls. Main objectives of the project are design rules to reduce interlocking problems in future constructions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Josef Schlattmann