Design of anchored sheet pile walls in cohesionless soil

In Denmark design of sheet pile wall is often carried out using Brinch Hansen’s earth pressuretheory. This design is often verified by a calculation using Finite Element Methods, typically based on Plaxis 2D. The Mohr Coulomb failure criterion is often used in the design with Plaxis. If the fill consists of cohesionless material a constant value is used for the friction angle when using the Mohr Coulomb failure criterion. However research has shown that the friction angle is stress dependent and the finite element software OptumG2, which in some ways is similar to Plaxis, besides the traditional constitutive models, also features a constitutive model called the GSK Model taking into account the stress dependency of the friction angle. This paper accounts for the results obtained by the three approaches in the design of a sheet pile wall. The study, which has been performed under the assumptions of both an associative and nonassociative flow rule, shows reasonable accordance between most of the Plaxis and OptumG2 results, and also that considerable savings are possible when applying the GSK model.