• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.57-68
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• 2020

In the case of two-dimensional analysis generally applied in the analysis of Earth Retaining Wall, mutual interference occurs due to earth pressure, when the excavation width is small, and in the section where the excavation width is small, and the resulting influence makes it difficult to secure reliability in the horizontal displacement of the retaining wall when performing 2-dimensional analysis in a section with a small excavation width. This study performed two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element analyses on excavation depth (H) and excavation width (B) under various conditions for the H-pile earth wall, in the geological conditions of clayey soil, sandy soil, and weathered rock, and examined the relationship between excavation width and horizontal displacement according to each condition, to identify the boundary of the excavation width, which is the range of mutual interference caused by earth pressure. As a result, it was possible to clearly distinguish the analytical boundary according to the excavation width only in the clayey soils with relatively large horizontal displacement. It is concluded that it is reasonable to perform a 3D finite element analysis, which is similar to the actual behavior, if the excavation scale (B/H) is 2.0 or less, with the digging width less than 12 m at a digging depth of 10 m or less, and with the the one less than 24 m at a digging depth of 10 m or more, and that 2-dimensional finite element analysis may be used in cases where the excavation width is greater than 12 m when the excavation scale (B/H) is 2.0 or more and the excavation depth is 10 m or less, and the excavation width is greater than 24 m at an excavation depth of 10 m or more.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.315-327
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• 2019

Deep excavations for development of subway systems in metropolitan regions surrounded by adjacent buildings is an important geotechnical problem, especialy in Tabriz city, where is mostly composed of young alluvial soils and weak marly layers. This study analyzes the wall displacement and ground surface settlement due to deep excavation in the Tabriz marls using two dimensional finite element method. The excavation of the station L2-S17 was selected as a case study for the modelling. The excavation is supported by the concrete diaphragm wall and one row of steel struts. The analyses investigate the effects of wall stiffness and excavation width on the excavation-induced deformations. The geotechnical parameters were selected based on the results of field and laboratory tests. The results indicate that the wall deflection and ground surface settlement increase with increasing excavation depth and width. The change in maximum wall deflection and ground settlement with considerable increase in wall stiffness is marginal, however the lower wall stiffness produces the larger wall and ground displacements. The maximum wall deflections induced by the excavation with a width of 8.2 m are 102.3, 69.4 and 44.3 mm, respectively for flexible, medium and stiff walls. The ratio of maximum ground settlement to maximum lateral wall deflection approaches to 1 with increasing wall stiffness. It was found that the wall stiffness affects the settlement influence zone. An increase in the wall stiffness results in a decrease in the settlements, an extension in the settlement influence zones and occurrence of the maximum settlements at a larger distance from the wall. The maximum of settlement for the excavation with a width of 14.7 m occurred at 6.1, 9.1 and 24.2 m away from the wall, respectively, for flexible, medium and stiff walls.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.23-33
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• 2015

Together with the wall stiffness, a berm has the role of deciding the stability of a temporary retaining wall before structure installation after excavation. Especially in case of loose or soft soil excavated ground, the role of berm is very important. In this study, the measurement data obtained from the temporary retaining wall in the bermed excavation site in urban and numerical analysis are used to investigate the effects of berm's dimension (width and slope), excavation depth and ground property on the maximum horizontal displacement of the temporary retaining wall. The measurement data indicated that the wall displacement varied to the berm's width. That is, as the berm width decreased, the wall displacement increased. As a result of numerical analyses, the maximum wall displacement increased as slope increased and berm width decreased. This means that the berm is effectively restrained to the wall displacement. As excavation depth increased, the effect of berm's slope and width increased. In case of the same berm condition, the wall displacement restrained as ground property increased.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.640-655
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• 2018

Recently, the construction of the urban area has been rapidly increasing, and the excavation work of the ground has been frequently performed at the upper part of the existing underground structures. Especially, when the structure is constructed after the excavation of the ground, the loading and unloading process in the ground under the excavation basement can affect the existing underground structures. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the existing underground structure due to the excavation of the ground, it is necessary to accurately grasp the influence of the excavation and the structure load in the adjoining part. In this study, the effect of the excavation of the ground and the new structure load on the existing tunnel was experimentally implemented and the influence of the adjacent construction on the existing tunnel was investigated. For this purpose a large testing model with 1/5 scale of the actual size was manufactured. The influence of ground excavation, width of the load due to new structure, and distance between centers of tunnel and of excavation on the existing tunnel was investigated. In this study, it was confirmed that the influence on the existing tunnel gets larger, as the excavation depth get deeper. At the same distance, it was confirmed that the tunnel displacement increased up to three times according to the increase of the building load width. That is, the load width influences the existing tunnel larger than the excavation depth. As the impact of the distance between centers of tunnel and of excavation, it was confirmed that tunnel crown displacement decreased by 48%. The result showed that a tunnel is located in the range of 1D (D: tunnel diameter) from the center of excavation, the effect of excavation is the largest.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.67-74
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• 2012

The arching effect of the active earth pressure acting on an excavation wall subjected to close excavation reduces lateral earth pressure acting on excavation wall. In this paper, the arching effect was estimated for varying width to excavation depth ratio and wall friction angle by analytical and numerical methods verified with centrifuge test results. The arching effect is significant when the width to excavation depth ratio and wall friction angle is decreased and increased, respectively. The analytical solution derived from the classical arching theory suggested by Handy(1985) shows good agreement with the numerical solution than the other solutions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.513-530
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• 2015

Commonly, the base stability of sheeted excavation pits against seepage failure by heave is evaluated by using two-dimensional groundwater flow models and Terzaghi's failure criterion. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of three-dimensional groundwater flow on the heave for sheeted excavation pits with various dimensions. For this purpose, the steady-state groundwater flow analyses are performed by using the finite element program ABAQUS 6.12. It has been shown that, in homogeneous soils depending on the ratio of half of excavation width to embedment depth b/D, the ratio of safety factor obtained from 3D analyses to that obtained from 2D analyses $FS_{(3D)}/FS_{(2D)}$ can reach up to 1.56 and 1.34 for square and circular shaped excavations, respectively. As failure body, both an infinitesimal soil column adjacent to the wall (Baumgart & Davidenkoff's criterion) and a three-dimensional failure body with the width suggested by Terzaghi for two-dimensional cases are used. It has been shown that the ratio of $FS_{(Terzaghi)}/FS_{(Davidenkoff)}$ varies between 0.75 and 0.94 depending on the ratio of b/D. Additionally, the effects of model size, the shape of excavation pit and anisotropic permeability on the heave are studied. Finally, the problem is investigated for excavation pits in stratified soils, and important points are emphasized.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2023

By conducting three-dimensional simulation with consideration of small-strain characteristics of soil stiffness, the effects of excavation geometry and tunnel cover to diameter ratio on deformation mechanisms of an existing tunnel located either at a side of basement or directly underneath the basement were systematically studied. Field measurements were used to verify the numerical model and model parameters. For basement excavated at a side of an existing tunnel, the maximum settlement and horizontal displacement of the tunnel are always observed at the tunnel springline closer to basement and tunnel crown, respectively, regardless of basement geometry. By increasing basement length and width by five times, the maximum movements of tunnel located at the side of basement and directly underneath the basement increase by 450% and 186%, respectively. Obviously, tunnel movements are more sensitive to basement length rather than basement width. For basement excavated at a side of an existing tunnel, tunnel movements at basement centerline become stable when basement length reaches 10 H_e (i.e., final excavation depth). Moreover, tunnel heaves due to overlying basement excavation become stable when the normalized basement length (L/H_e) is larger than 8.0. As tunnel cover to diameter ratio varies from 2.5 to 3.0, the maximum heave and tensile strain of tunnel due to overlying basement excavation decrease by up to 41.0% and 44.5%, respectively. If basement length is less than 8 H_e, the assumption of plane strain condition of basement-tunnel interaction grossly overestimates tunnel movements, and ignores tensile strain of tunnel along its longitudinal direction. Thus, three-dimensional numerical analyses are required to obtain a reasonable estimation of tunnel responses due to adjacent and overlying basement excavations in clay.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.293-312
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• 2022

Cantilever sheet pile walls having section thinner than masonry walls are generally adopted to retain moderate height of excavation. In practice, a surcharge in the form of strip load of finite width is generally present on the backfill. So, in the present study, influence of strip load on cantilever sheet pile walls is analyzed by varying the width of the strip load and distance from the cantilever sheet pile walls using finite difference based computer program in cohesionless soil modelled as Mohr-Coulomb model. The results of bending moment, earth pressure, deflection and settlement are presented in non-dimensional terms. A parametric study has been conducted for different friction angle of soil, embedded depth of sheet pile walls, different magnitudes and width of the strip load acting on the ground surface and at a depth below ground level. The result of present study is also validated with the available literature. From the results presented in this study, it can be inferred that optimum behavior of cantilever sheet pile walls is observed for strip load having width 2 m to 3 m on the ground surface. Further as the depth of strip load below the ground surface increases below the ground level to 0.75 times excavation height, the bending moment, settlement, net earth pressure and deflection decreases and then remains constant.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.179-191
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• 2023

To study the influences of tunneling on the earth pressure and ground settlement when the tunnel passes through the adjacent underground retaining structure, 30 two-dimensional model tests were carried out taking into account the ratios of tunnel excavation depth (H) to lateral width (w), excavation width (B), and excavation distance using a custom-made test device and an analogical soil. Tunnel crossing adjacent existing retaining structure (TCE) and tunnel crossing adjacent newly-built retaining structure (TCN) were simulated and the earth pressure variations and ground settlement distribution during excavation were analyzed. For TCE condition, the earth pressure increments, maximum ground settlement and the curvature of the ground settlement curve are negatively related to H/B, but positively related to H/s and H/w. For TCN condition, most trends are consistent with TCE except that the earth pressure increments and the curvature of ground settlement curve are negatively related to H/w. The maximum ground settlement is larger than that observed in tunnel crossing the existing underground structure. This study provides an assessment basis for the design and construction under confined space conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.251-265
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• 2023

In urban construction projects, it is crucial to evaluate the impacts of excavation-induced ground movements in order to protect surrounding structures. These ground movements resulting in damages to the neighboring structures and facilities (i.e., parking basement) are of main concern for the geotechnical engineers. Even more, the danger exists if the nearby structure is an ancient or masonry brick building. The formations of cracks are indicators of structural damage caused by excavation-induced ground disturbances, which pose issues for excavation-related projects. Although the effects of deep excavations on existing brick masonry walls have been thoroughly researched, the impact of twin excavations on a brick masonry wall is rarely described in the literature. This work presents a 3D parametric analysis using an advanced hypoplastic model to investigate the responses of an existing isolated brick masonry wall to twin perpendicular excavations in dry sand. One after the other, twin perpendicular excavations are simulated. This article also looks at how varying sand relative densities (D_r = 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%) affect the masonry wall. The cracks at the top of the wall were caused by the hogging deformation profile caused by the twin excavations. By raising the relative density from 30% to 90%, excavation-induced footing settlement is greatly minimized. The crack width at the top of the wall reduces as a result of the second excavation in very loose to loose sand (D_r = 30% and 50%). While the crack width on the top of the wall increases owing to the second excavation in medium to very dense sand (D_r = 70% and 90%).