Numerical simulation of T-walls supported by batter piles within a levee embankment

After catastrophic levee failures triggered by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, concrete T-walls with batter piles are extensively used to enhance the integrity of levees in the New Orleans area. Since the foundation soils in this region typically include soft and compressible clays, T-walls with batter piles should be designed to account for bending moments and stresses induced by settlement. However, the current T-wall design procedure for estimating these settlement-induced bending moments (SIBMs) only takes a limited range of conditions into consideration. This paper presents results from a series of finite-difference numerical simulations to investigate the effects of various parameters on SIBM in pile-supported T-walls. The numerical model was first used to simulate a centrifuge test and upon comparison, a reasonable agreement was observed between the numerical simulation and experimental results. The numerical model was then used to investigate the effects of different parameters including pile connecti...