The conventional design methods for sheet-pile cellular cofferdams were developed in the 1940's and 1950's based on field and limited experimental observations. The analytical techniques of the day were unable to account for the complexities involved.
The procedures used only rudimentary concepts of soil-structure interaction which do not exhibit the true response of the cofferdam for most circumstances.
During the past decade it has been demonstrated that with proper consideration of the soil-structure interaction effects, the two-dimensional finite element models can be powerful tools in the investigation of cellular cofferdam behavior. However, universal implementation of the findings of these analyses was difficult to justify, since uncertainties remain about the assumptions made in arriving at the two dimensional models. The only way to address these uncertainties was to perform a three-dimensional analysis.
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