Massachusetts Military Reservation
1999
Cape Cod, MA
14 ft.
1,105 lin. ft. of 14 ft sheets, cantilevered
US Air Force
sheets
4 ft and installed as a cut-off wall
designed to contain a plum of ethylene
dibromide.
Williamsburg Pump Station
1998
Williamsburg,
22 ft.
240 lin ft. seepage barrier installed in
USCOE / Kentucky District
KY
sheets
dense clay using steel mandrel to protect
Ctc. Francis "Hammer" Haynes
pump station from river flooding.
606-549-2710
City of Benicia Floodwall
1999
Benicia, CA
14 ft.
1,200 lin ft. of 14 ft sheets, cantilevered
City Engineering
sheets
to a 7 ft. height, capped with concrete to
act as a floodwall on the Sacramento
River.
Medley Landfill Containment Wall
1998
Miami, FL
12 ft.
over 4,000 lin ft. cut-off wall,
Law Engineering
sheets
cantilevered approximately 5 ft. in order
to capture water run-off, with up to 100
year service life.
National Park Svc./ Dept. of Interior
2002
Ocean Springs,
8 ft to 12
400 lin. Ft. of bulkhead using Series
Gulf Islands National Seashore
MS
ft sheets
3700, designed and spec'd by govt.
engineers.
Pymatuning State Park
1993
Linesville, PA
10 ft.
One of the earliest government
Pennsylvania State Engineering
sheets
installations of vinyl sheet pile, mono-
Contractor: Ashtabula Construction
extruded, light- weight profile designed
Jefferson, OH
in the weakest shape and subjected to
216-576-7181
annual ice push for 10 years
Maximization of section strength through design
Finite Element Modeling used in Northstar design (FEM) (ANSYS Version 5.7):
Prior to construction, FEM has been used in the design of aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles,
bridge beams, and skyscrapers to name a few. FEM provides a rigorous way of modeling the load
and analyzing the stresses and deflections of a given part. The dozens of FEM runs carried out by
Georgia Institute of Technology on Northstar's behalf, utilizes millions of tiny 3-D bricks as
"building blocks" of the vinyl sheet pile. Here, one can see how a Z-shaped profile behaves under
loading. Northstar's intent for running the dozens of FEM runs is two fold: 1) determine the
optimum geometry of the Z-shaped profile, and 2) confirm/validate the practical use of the linear
beam model for (σ = M/S) determining the maximum applied stresses in the sheeting. In the
FEM, sheets were loaded to their maximum allowable rated moment based on their section
modulus and the linear beam equation. Next, stresses (major and minor) as well as deflections
were calculated utilizing FEM. Maximum stresses calculated from FEM were compared with
maximum allowable stresses for the applicable vinyl compound. Also, stresses and deflections
were compared to the linear beam equation. It is interesting to note that a Z-shaped sheet of
uniform thickness develops higher stresses in the corners (web/flange intersection) than predicted
by the linear beam equation. It is Northstar's opinion that only by substantially thickening the
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