Reliability-Based Analysis of Cantilever Sheet Pile Walls Backfilled with Different Soil Types Using the Finite-Element Approach

The paper presents an analytical study of a cantilever sheet pile wall considering the effects of uncertainty of soil properties. The failure probability (P-f) of the sheet pile wall is combined with the sensitivity (S) of geotechnical random variables on the failure mode, and a new factor, the probabilistic risk factor (R-f), is proposed for each random variable corresponding to different variations of the random variables. The cantilever sheet pile wall that is driven into a cohesionless soil layer and backfilled by (1) cohesionless soil and (2) cohesive soil is considered separately for analysis against the rotational failure mode. P-f is obtained by developing the response surface, based on finite element models. The sensitivity of each random variable is obtained by F-test analysis. It is observed that the cohesion of foundation soil (c(2)) and water table positions are the important factors that influence the stability of the cantilever sheet pile walls to a great extent. Finally, design guidelines are provided based on the proposed risk factor-based approach for different heights of the cantilever sheet pile wall, pertaining to variation in soil properties and for varying positions of the water table. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.