Selected aspects of designing deep excavations

Abstract

This paper analyzes two approaches to serviceability limit state (SLS) verification for the deep excavation boundary value problem. The verification is carried out by means of the finite element (FE) method with the aid of the commercial program ZSoil v2014. In numerical simulations, deep excavation in non-cohesive soil is supported with a diaphragm wall. In the first approach, the diaphragm wall is modeled with the Hookean material assuming reduced average stiffness and possible concrete cracking. The second approach is divided into two stages. In the first stage, the wall is modeled by defining its stiffness with the highest nominal Young's modulus. The modulus makes it possible to find design bending moments which are used to compute the minimal design cross-section reinforcement for the retaining structure. The computed reinforcement is then used in a non-linear structural analysis which is viewed as the "actual" SLS verification.In the second part, the paper examines the same boundary value problem assuming that the excavation takes place in quasiimpermeable cohesive soils, which are modeled with the Hardening Soil model. This example demonstrates the consequences of applying the steady-state type analysis for an intrinsically time-dependent problem. The results of this analysis are compared to the results from the consolidation-type analysis, which are considered as a reference. For both analysis types, the two-phase formulation for partially-saturated medium, after Aubry and Ozanam, is used to describe the interaction between the soil skeleton and pore water pressure.

Archives of Civil Engineering

“…The values of loads from buildings, as well as the approach and place of their application, were determined based on the analysis of project documentation and own experience. The spatial numerical model was designed in the 2016 ZSoil application by ZACE Services Ltd. [28][29][30]. The model maps an area of 240 × 150 m, a complex of new buildings including buildings A, B, C, D and neighboring buildings (Fig.…”

On consistent nonlinear analysis of soil–structure interaction problems

“…A fully consistent approach in which both subsoil and structure are treated as nonlinear materials, including visco-elastic creep, in the structure, is proposed and analysed in this paper. A similar approach was recently analysed by Obrzud et al [1]; however, the concrete model used in their study was strictly limited to the 1D stress-strain representation, and the applied creep law was not compatible with the Eurocode 2 (EC2) standard. When we analyse statically undetermined systems, consisting of subsoil and structure, it is well known that internal force distribution depends on the relative stiffness of the two model components.…”