ABSTRACT
The present analysis concerns the utilization of driven sheet pile walls in vibration mitigation. Wave barriers in the form of infilled trenches are a well-known means of vibration mitigation. However, the installation of such barriers may be costly by means of, for example, the cut-and-cover or jet grouting techniques. Driven sheet piles are an alternative to these methods. The soil between two walls may simply be removed, thus leaving an open trench – or the original soil may be replaced with another material such as bentonite. In any case, the goal is to obtain a strong impedance mismatch between this sandwich structure and the surrounding soil. In addition to this, non-vertical sheet piles may be driven, which may lead to a further increase of the efficiency when compared with vertical barriers. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether vertical or non-vertical walls are preferable in order to achieve efficient vibration screening. Further, the optimal dynamic properties of the fill material between two walls are discussed. The computations are carried out in the frequency domain with a two-dimensional coupled boundary element–finite element scheme.
