Laboratory Study on the Bearing Capacities of Sheet Pile Foundations in Saturated Clay

In recent years, sheet piles have been developed and widely used in various projects, including docks, embankment revetments, retaining walls, and more. While deep foundation piles are typically made of pipe piles, sheet piles offer a viable alternative, with the potential to support the foundations of permanent structures such as buildings. Currently, there is a lack of experimental research on the use of steel sheet piles in clay, the performance of sheet piles in clay ground with high saturation levels has not been fully understood. Therefore, this paper presents a series of experiments to investigate the bearing capacity characteristics of a single steel sheet pile model and a sheet pile group foundation model in saturated clay, to gain a deeper understanding of the interaction between the sheet piles and the saturated clay. The experimental results revealed that the excess pore water pressure generated during both pile installation and cyclic loading processes had a significant impact on the pile bearing capacities.