Effect of Steel Sheet Piles Defects on Seepage and Contamination Transport through the Soil

Abstract

Hydraulic control is a popular method for control contaminant transport through groundwater. Sheet piles are perfectly used for control and delaying seepage and contaminant transport through soil. Due to imperfections of sealing, corrosion, or due to accidental damage, a horizontal slot is present in the sheet pile at depth below the ground. The gap allows water and contaminant to pass through it. The present paper investigates the effect of defects in steel sheet pile on seepage and contaminant transport whenever the slots at various distances from the ground happened. To solve the seepage and contaminant transport through groundwater, a numerical model (Geo-Studio) based on the Finite Element Method was utilized. The current study is two-dimensional flow for the effect of slot place and sheet pile depths and other parameters as, soil hydraulic conductivity, head difference between upstream and downstream pile, breadth of the gap, and distance between the contamination source and the sheet pile. In the present study a suggested equations is used for calculating total seepage discharge and seepage under sheet pile with slot for known depth of slot with maximum error 5.78 % and 1.922 % respectively. Also, an empirical equation for calculating the traveling time of contaminant through the slot in polynomial correlation formula has coefficients of determination values vary between 0.9385 and 0.9903 are presented.