N. C.

OANH

Field Behaviours of Braced Sheet Pile Wall in Soft Ground in

Southern Viet Nam

N. C. Oanh
LPG Thi Vai ,Posco Engineering,Baria Vung tau city,Viet Nam. E-mail: nguyencongoanh@yahoo.com.

Keywords: Soft clay, sheet pile, excavation, lateral displacement.

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a case study of field behavior of braced sheet pile wall in soft ground. The
focuses are on stress strain behaviors with field monitoring of lateral displacement of the braced sheet pile wall and
settlement of the surrounding area during the 11m deep excavation of the pump pit. The relationship between
lateral displacement along the sheet pile wall and the settlement of the soft ground is found afterward. Furthermore,
comparison of calculated and monitored data is shown to get insight into actual behavior of the braced cut wall.
Observation procedure was used in control the safety of this underground work.

1. INTRODUCTION drainage lines there. Therefore, pumping of water out of

The location of the project is South East of Ho Chi
Minh City as shown in Figure 1. This River Water
Intake Structure is built to get river water for heating
purpose of refrigerated LPG so it is located very close
to the shoreline of Thi Vai River with daily tidal cycle
observed. Due to the narrow and limited area of the
existing LPG factory, braced sheet pile wall was
implemented for deep excavation of the pit. Sheet pile
type is of IV type and bracing beam is of H-400. The
depth of the excavation is around 10.5m to construct the
concrete bottom slab of the river water retaining
reinforced concrete structure.
Figure 1 Location map of the site
During the deep excavation work, the pit was kept
drained by the submerged pumps installed in the
the excavation pit will generate residual water level
from outside of the pit compared to the inside one. The
residual water level contributed lateral pressure to sheet
pile wall. The detailed analysis of the structures is to be
carried out in the following sections with the correct
way of characterization of soil properties by using field
testing results in conjunction with laboratory testing.
2. SUBSOIL PROPERTIES
Investigation was carried out in 2009 for FEED (Front
End Engineering Design), and in 2010 for detailed
design of the whole project. Unfortunately, there was
no borehole or field test done near the location of the
river water intake structure where the land had been
reclaimed for almost ten years. Therefore, additional
investigation with two boreholes BH-07 and BH-08,
one piezocone penetration test CPTU-04 and one field
vane test VST-05 was conducted just for the
engineering design of this support structure before the
start of the excavation work to get undisturbed samples
for laboratory testing and good insight into the real soil
condition of the reclaimed soil after ten years. The
additional soil investigation is necessary for the design
and construction of the braced sheet pile wall in the soft
ground condition. The ground includes around 2m of
sand filling on the top, which was completed around ten
years ago, underneath is 18m of soft clay with high
water content and highly compressible characteristics.

ID No./ pp. 7
 N. C. OANH

Figure 2 Layout plan of soil investigation for the project site

LL, PL & wc (%) (g/cm3) Void ratio e Index
0 40 80 120 160 0.8 1.6 2.4 3.2 0 0.8 1.6 2.4 3.2 0 0.4 0.8 1.2
0

-10
Elevation (m)

-20
Cs=0.15 Cc=1.00
γ=1.5g/cm 3
e =2.0
Compre ssion:Cc
-30 Swelling:Cs

Spe c. Gravity
-40 wc Unit We ight
LL
PL
-50
Figure 3 Physical mechanical properties

qc (MPa) fs (kPa) u2 (kPa) qt-σ v0 (kPa) su (kPa)

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 40 80 0 350 700 0 600 1200 0 50 100
5
Nkt=15
0

-5
Elevation (m)

-10

-15 u0

-20

-25

-30
CPTU-01 CPTU-02 CPTU-03 CPTU-04 (at RWI Pit) VST (in March 2010)
VST-01 VST-02 VST-03 VST-04 VST-05 (at RWI Pit)

Figure 4 Piezocone penetration and vane shear test results

Sandy soil was found in boreholes BH-07 and BH-08
from the depth of 18 to 21m though its thickness is
ranging from 18 to 25m for the whole site. Figure 2
shows the layout plan of soil investigation in the
River Water Intake area. Figure 3 clearly separates
two layers of soils in the ground. The soft clay has
natural water content close to liquid limit, unit weight
of around 15.5 g/cm3 and void ratio ranging from 1.7
to 3.20. The average void ratio to be used in the finite
element analysis is 2.0. It is found that even the
reclaimed sand have consolidated the soft clay by its
self-weight.
ID No./ pp. 7
 N. C. OANH

60
VST-01 The increase in (qt-σ’v0) in these depth confirms
VST-02
VST-03 Sand seam
the existence of these sand seams. As found in the
VST-04 laboratory test results, un-drained shear strength to
su (kPa)

40 VST-05
VST(March 2010)
s u/σ'v0=0.23
20
0 40 80 120
σ ' v0 (kPa)
Figure 5 su vs. over-burdened stress ratio
Not much effect from the reclaimed sand to the
soft clay deposit resulted in the fact that the soft clay
is now lightly over consolidated with pre-over
burdened pressure of around 4 to 5KPa because the
effective stress increase by the sand fill was not large
enough to bring the soil to normally consolidated
state. Piezocone penetration testing was done for the
whole site to investigate the detail of soft clay profile
from area to area. The testing results plotted in Figure
4 show that the soft clay is almost same from top to
bottom of the soft clay layer though there is sand
seam found from elevation -1.0m to -5.0m with high
un-drained shear strength at shallow depth.
effective over-burdened stress ratio is of 0.23 as the
average value according to vane shear test and
piezocone penetration as shown in Figure 4 and
Figure 5. Furthermore, cone factor Nkt=15 is found to
160 be consistent with vane shear test data. This ratio is
used to calculate the effective friction angle of the
soft clay following critical state soil theory for the
finite element analysis of the deep excavation
supported by braced sheet pile wall. The friction
angle is determined as 27 degrees. Compression and
swelling indices are 1.0 and 0.15 respectively as
shown in Figure 3.
3. MONITORING INSTRUMENT
Furthermore, the field instrumentation used in
evaluation of the safety factor of the exaction work
was considered as observational facilities in the
construction of river water intake sump with deep
excavation work carried out.

Figure 6 Arrangement of monitoring instrumentation (Dimension in meter)

ID No./ pp. 7
 N. C. OANH

As shown in Figure 6 Inclinometers were installed 3. ANALYSIS OF BRACED SHEET PILE

around 2m away from sheet pile wall line in order to
FEM analysis was performed to study the behaviors
ovoid their damages during the installation of sheet
of the braced sheet pile wall in soft ground condition.
piles. The main direction of inclinometer I-01 is
Soft Soil model was used in the analysis with Plaxis,
toward riverside or toward the excavation pit while I-
a finite element program, in order to simulate the
02 and I-03 directions are toward riverside and
behavior of soft clay layer while Mohr Coulomb
toward the excavation pit. This arrangement gave the
model for reclaimed sandy soil and sand layer at the
engineers the overall view of lateral movement of
bottom interested domain. Although, there was no
earth into the pit and toward the river because one
UTCT (Undrained Triaxial Compression Test) done
side of the pit is close to Thi Vai River. In this case,
to get effective stress parameters for the analyses,
it was very important to use inclinometers I-02 and I-
vane shear test and piezocone penetration test are
03 for the assessment of factor of safety for land
used instead in the estimation of the effective stress
sliding issues too. However, in this paper only data of
parameters with critical state theory. The following
inclinometer I-01 is used for assessment of behaviors
construction sequences in Table 1 are applied in the
of soft clay under deep excavation of the pit.
analysis. Soft clay layer behaves in un-drained
Inclinometers and settlement plates were installed
condition due to its low permeability coefficient
before sheet pile were driven by hydraulic pressing
while sandy soils in drained condition. Table 2 shows
machine so the initial readings for these
all effective stress parameters for the three soils in
instrumentations will be determined as from the
finite element analysis. As mentioned above,
completion of sheet pile installation on 10 January
effective friction angle of the soft clay is derived
2012. The length of inclinometers installed is of 36m;
from field vane shear and piezocone testing data.
however, the data considered are only 30m from the
Section properties of structural elements as bracing
top of inclinometer casing. Top elevation of the
beams, H-400 and sheet pile type IV are tabulated in
casing is almost equal to existing ground elevation.
Table 3.

Table 1 Construction sequences of the excavation work

0 Sheet pile installation 10-Jan-12
1 1st excavation to EL. +0.20 12-Jan-12 14-Jan-12
2 1st bracing installation at EL. +0.20 15-Jan-12 17-Jan-12
3 2nd excavation to EL. -1.80 2-Feb-12 7-Feb-12
4 2nd bracing installation at EL -1.80 10-Feb-12 11-Feb-12
5 3rd excavation to EL. -3.80 12-Feb-12 17-Feb-12
6 3rd bracing installation at EL. -3.80 23-Feb-12 27-Feb-12
7 4th excavation to EL. -5.80 28-Feb-12 8-Mar-12
8 4th bracing installation at EL. -5.80 10-Mar-12 13-Mar-12
9 5th excavation to EL. -8.50 29-Mar-12 6-Apr-12

Table 2 Soil properties in finite element analysis

Soil layer Soil Model E' ν' kx=ky ϕ’ Cc Cs e0 OCR
[kPa] [-] [m/day] [deg.] [-] [-] [-] [-]
Sand fill MC 30000 0.30 1.00E+00 30 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Soft Clay Soft Soil 0.22 1.00E-04 27 1.00 0.15 2.00 1.05
Sand MC 30000 0.30 1.00E+00 30 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Table 3 Section properties of structure elements

Area - Moment of Young
Structure Element EA EI Weight
A Inertia - I modulus - E
[cm2] [cm4/m] [kN/cm2] [kN/m] [kNm2/m] [kg/m/m]
H-400 215.0 [-] 20000 4290800 [-] [-]
Sheet pile type IV 242.5 38600 20000 4860000 77200 190
ID No./ pp. 7

Two cases of finite element analyses are calculated
with plane strain condition. In the first case (Case-1)
conducted during the engineering stage of this river
water intake structure, there is no consideration of
hydraulic jack forces at bracing levels 1, 2 and 3
from the top of excavation pit. While in the second
case, (Case-2) conducted after getting the monitored
data from inclinometer I-01 and settlement plates SP-
01 to SP-07, there is consideration of hydraulic jack
force of 60kN/m, 160kN/m and 160kN/m
respectively at bracing levels 1, 2 and 3 from the top.
Figure 7(a) Total displacement at 5th excavation
Figure 7(b) Shaded displacement at 5th excavation
Figure 7(a) and Figure 7(b) show total
displacement of the whole domain after the 5th
excavation. The maximum uplift movement of
bottom of excavation pit is around 72mm as shown in
Figure 9. The uplift movement is increasing from
sheet pile face to center of the excavation pit.
However, outward of the pit, there is ground loss
behavior as shown in Figure 9 and the ground loss at
pit bottom elevation is ranging from 3mm to nearly
25mm at 6m from sheet pile wall. The total uplift
movement here can be attributed to rebounding of
soft clay and large lateral displacement of sheet pile.
The results of lateral displacement are plotted in
Figure 10 right at the end of each excavation stage.
The plots show that there are big differences in
lateral displacement of calculated Case-1 and
N. C. OANH
monitored data in five excavation stages. With the
revision of modeling in hydraulic jack forces at the
first three bracing levels, resulted in the consistent
between calculated Case-2 and monitored data from
3rd excavation to 5th excavation. Therefore, it is clear
that jack forces at the first three bracing levels affect
lateral displacement profile of the braced sheet pile
wall. Furthermore, Case-1, Case-2 and monitored
data show that the deflection zone of sheet pile wall
is ranging from the top to elevation of around -15m
to -17.5m. Maximum lateral displacement of sheet
pile tip is of 30mm in 5th stage of excavation as
shown in Figure 10.
Figure 8 Deformed mesh at 5th excavation
100
Sheet pile
Uplift (mm)
50
0 Inward
the pit
-50 Calculated uplift Outward
the pit
-100
-32 -24 -16 -8 0 8
Distance from sheet pile wall (m)
Figure 9 uplift at bottom of the excavation pit
From 1st to 3rd excavation the results of analyses
show that calculated models are more conservative
than actual condition. The increase of lateral
movement at the end of 5th excavation is due to other
possible reasons which will be explained later on.
The ground loss profiles of calculated Case-2 are a
bit smaller than monitored data as specified in Figure
11. The differences may be attributed to over-cutting
of earth at some areas in the excavation pit, resulted
in actual excavation depth was larger than that
considered in finite element analysis. Furthermore, it
was found that at the end of 4th and 5th excavation,
there was twisting of bracing beam at level 4 and 5
from the top so lateral displacement increase
aggressively. However, lateral movement of sheet
pile has been stopped from 22 May 2012 to now
because drastic action was taken as soon as there was
evidence that the lateral movement of sheet pile was
increasing more and more.
ID No./ pp. 7
 N. C. OANH

1st excavation 2nd excavation 3rd excavation 4th excavation 5th excavation
0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120
5

-5
Elevation (m)

-10

-15

-20 15 M ar 2012
22 M ay 2012
07 Feb 2012 21 Feb 2012 08 M ar 2012 09 June 2012
-25 14 Jan 2012
Original calculation Original calculation Original calculation Original calculation
Original calculation
Revised calculation Revised calculation Revised calculation Revised calculation Revised calculation
-30
Inclinometer I-01, Lateral displacement (mm)

Figure 10 Comparison of calculated and monitored lateral movement at inclinometer I-01

1st excavation 2nd excavation 3rd excavation 4th excavation 5th excavation
0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120 0 60 120
Distance to Depth of excavation R/D

0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
2.4
2.8 12 Jan 2012 09 Feb 2012 23 Feb 2012 08 M ar 2012 22 M ar 2012
Revised calculation Revised calculation Revised calculation Revised calculation 29 M ar 2012
Revised calculation
3.2
Vertical displacement (mm), R: Distance from sheet pile; D: Depth of excavation 10.5m

Figure 11 Comparison of calculated and monitored ground loss from the face of sheet pile wall
4. CONCLUSIONS parameters applied in the FEA are acceptable.
Therefore, with field testing results a full FEA can be
Monitoring instrumentation is recommended for the
done with appropriate characterization of soil
deep excavation work to control safety factor in real
parameters if triaxial stress path tests are not
time.
available.
Observational method plays important role in this
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