Stability of Sheetpile Wall : Toe Stability

In sheetpile design, the stability at base (Toe stability) must be assured to be larger than a specified safety factor (FS), normally 2.0.

In sheetpile design, the stability at base (Toe stability) must be assured to be larger than a specified safete factor (FS), normally 2.0. The toe failure will cause the sheetpile wall to rotate about point O as shown in Fig. 1. When embedded in clay, the toe resistance is contributed only by undrained shear strength of clay. The failure surface can be approximated as a circle. It's assumed that the shear strength of soil is constant along the failure surface.