Mitigation of Sheet Pile Movements during DDC by Open Trenches

This paper investigated the effectiveness of open-trench wave barriers in reducing the movements of sheet pile walls during deep dynamic compaction (DDC), by isolating (screening) the energy waves generated in DDC impact. This investigation was achieved by a series of finite element analyses. The open trenches with different cross-section shapes were investigated. The dimensional effects of trenches were analyzed and discussed, and then the isolation efficiencies of the different trenches were compared. The numerical results indicated that excavating an open trench in front of the retaining walls is an effective measure to reduce wall movements during DDC. For the investigated open trenches, increasing trench depth or trench width can efficiently improve their isolation efficiencies, while the cross-section shapes of the trenches have no apparent influences.