Analysis of model sheet pile walls with plastic hinges

As part of a wider project investigating the implications of Eurocode 3, Design of steel structures – Part 5: Piling, centrifuge testing of model sheet pile walls and numerical back-analysis were undertaken. The aims of the study were to examine the effect of plastic hinging on embedded retaining wall response, and to verify calculation methods for use in wider generic calculations. Physical modelling of an anchored wall embedded in dry sand was undertaken. In some of the tests a hinge zone was introduced into the wall in order to reproduce a kinematic mechanism similar to that associated with plastic hinge formation. Finite-element calculations were undertaken using Lade's double-hardening cap model to represent the behaviour of the sand. The analyses generally yielded good accord with the test results in many aspects of the wall behaviour. In terms of the aims of the testing, the study of the effect of plastic hinging was not realistically captured, because the hinge zone was present from the outset of the test, allowing greater than expected earth pressure redistribution, and because the moment–curvature characteristic of the notched wall did not reproduce the buckling effects seen in the plastic bending response of steel sheet piles. On the other hand, the satisfactory agreement between the test observations and the numerical predictions gave confidence in the use of the calculation model for further generic calculations using realistic steel sheet pile moment–plastic curvature characteristics.