Expanded Ltd engaged Tony Gee to design a watertight interlock and to determine a safe push-in force for the tubular piles. The solution was required to prevent damage and loss of interlock during installation and under conditions where the wall undergoes lateral deflection, caused by dewatering and excavation of the dock.
The design process necessitated a structural assessment on the forces that could be carried safely at the base of the tube and interlock. Back-analyses of preliminary pile trials helped to calibrate our non-linear finite element modelling in a 3D PLAXIS analysis. Tony Gee’s computational ground modelling capability has been proven to be a articularly powerful tool in predicting ground movements on other London railway schemes such as High Speed 1 Phase 2.
July 2010