Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.6.1 Cantilever walls
Sheet pile walls are flexible and sufficient yield will occur in a cantilever wall to give totally active earth
pressure conditions (Fig.
8.12)
.
Let the height of the wall be h, and suppose it is required to find the depth of embedment, d, that will
make the wall stable. For equilibrium the active pressure on the back of the wall must be balanced by
the passive pressure both in front of and behind the wall. If an arbitrary point C is chosen and it is assumed
that the wall will rotate outwards about this point, the theoretical pressure distribution on the wall is as
shown in Fig.
8.12c
. The toe of the wall (point D, Fig.
8.12a
) is deep enough such that the conditions that
prevail are known as
fixed earth
conditions.
Limit state design method to establish required design depth
The depth, d, is obtained by balancing the disturbing and restoring moments about C, together with the
horizontal forces established using the pressure distribution shown in Fig.
8.12c
. In Eurocode 7 the GEO
Fig. 8.12
Pressure distribution on sheet pile wall.
