Observations on densification of soil during vibratory sheetpiling

Vibratory sheetpiling may result in temporary excess pore pressures and settlement in the adjacent soil. These effects may result in damage to surrounding structures like buildings, highway embankments, railroad embankments, pipelines and dikes. In order to make a well balanced decision for the use of vibratory sheetpiling insight in the amount of settlement to be expected is needed. In order to assess the expected soil response a numerical model is being developed. The paper first describes the sheetpiling process, with special attention for the aspects relevant for the loading of the adjacent soil. Discussed are the friction at the interface sheetpile-soil (including the effect of large excess pore pressures) and the possible contribution of the tip force on the cyclic loading of the soil. The developed model is briefly described. Attention is paid to the used densification model. Observed settlements in a large scale field test are presented and discussed.