Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Sheet piling is a popular method for reinforcing river dikes or harbours with back-filling. It is constructed as protection against erosion and leakage of base foundation, is earthquake resistant, and draws in settlement from the surrounding area where consolidation settlement has occurred. Sheet pilings are equipped with an with interlocked joint, but they are not rigid connections. Therefore the design strength of the section is calculated by using a coefficient to estimate the strength as a lower value. It is preferred to fix the top of the sheet piling togeth- er to achieve the expected strength of the structure. For that reason, normally the sheet pilings are connected by a concrete beam on the top. River dikes in Japan for example, are likely to have high banks, but only a narrow base is allowed because of narrow Japanese land. It means that many banks have a steep gradient.