Choosing the Best Wall Type for Your Deep Excavation Project Made Easy!
Selecting the right retaining wall system for your deep excavation project is critical to ensuring safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. With numerous options available—each suited to different soil conditions, environmental constraints, and project goals—it can feel overwhelming to make the right choice. Factors such as site constraints, groundwater levels, structural loads, and construction logistics all play a role in determining the most suitable solution.
DeepEX, the leading deep excavation design software, empowers engineers to analyze and compare various wall types effortlessly, from soldier pile and lagging walls with different pile types to secant piles, tangent piles, sheet piles, concrete diaphragms and more. By simulating real-world conditions and optimizing designs, DeepEX allows you to identify the best retaining system for your needs while minimizing costs and ensuring compliance with safety standards.
Wall Types Designed with DeepEX
DeepEX offers unparalleled support for designing a wide range of retaining wall systems. Here’s a detailed overview of the most common wall types, their applications, and how our software makes their design process seamless:
Soldier Pile and Lagging Walls
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Applications: Temporary excavations, urban projects with tight space constraints.
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Advantages: Cost-effective, quick installation, adaptable to field changes.
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Disadvantages: Limited stiffness, not suitable for high water tables.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Easily define soldier piles of any pile type (H beams, pipes, concrete sections and more), lagging properties, and optimize designs for stability and cost. Analyze wall displacements, bending moments, and support forces with precision.
Sheet Pile Walls
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Applications: Marine structures, temporary works, cohesive soils.
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Advantages: High resistance to driving stresses, reusable, long lifespan.
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Disadvantages: Difficult to install in rocky soils, potential for neighborhood disturbance during driving.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Design both simple and complex sheet pile systems, including cofferdams. Use built-in databases for standard steel sheet profiles (steel sheets, vinyl sheet piles, corrugated plates) and optimize wall geometry and bracing.
Secant and Tangent Pile Walls
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Applications: High-stiffness walls for difficult soils, urban projects requiring noise reduction.
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Advantages: High stiffness, flexible alignment, quieter installation methods.
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Disadvantages: Higher costs, challenging to ensure verticality and waterproofing.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Model secant or tangent pile walls with primary and secondary pile reinforcement. In DeepEX you can use any reinforcement type for the piles (H beams, channel sections, pipes, reinforced concrete and more). Conduct detailed analyses for load distribution, wall stiffness, and seepage control.
Soil Mix Walls
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Applications: Hydraulic barriers, projects requiring impermeable solutions.
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Advantages: Stiff, waterproof, and suitable for a wide range of soils.
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Disadvantages: High mobilization costs, variability in in-situ strength.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Design reinforced and unreinforced soil mix walls. Optimize construction sequences and evaluate structural performance with integrated tools.
Concrete Diaphragm Walls (Slurry Walls)
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Applications: Deep basements, tunnels, permanent retaining systems.
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Advantages: High structural capacity, water-tightness, ideal for top-down construction.
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Disadvantages: High mobilization costs, specialized equipment required.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Analyze diaphragm walls for earth retention and water control. Integrate wall design with adjacent structural elements in top-down construction scenarios.
Combined Sheet Pile Walls
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Applications: Heavy marine applications, retaining systems for high loads.
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Advantages: Increased stiffness and moment resistance compared to standard sheet piles.
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Disadvantages: Higher cost, complex installation.
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DeepEX Capabilities: Select the desired combined section type (H beams, double H beams, pipes or concrete sections combined with sheet piles). Select any of the available implemented combined sheet pile sections from manufacturers or create custom combinations of king piles and sheet piles. Evaluate the structural interaction of wall components and optimize material use.
5 Reasons to Choose DeepEX for Your Next Project
1. Boost design efficiency: Save up to 90% of your design time based on customer testimonials.
2. Expand your capabilities: Have all methods at your fingertips, from limit equilibrium to soil springs and 2D & 3D finite elements.
3. Enhance your deliverables: Have time to quickly value engineer projects.
4. Minimize risks and costly mistakes: Stay safe with over 300 expert checks within the software.
5. We are here for you: With us, beyond technical support you get expert advice.