• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.565-577
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• 2022

In this study, a series of three-dimensional numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate deformation mechanisms of an existing box culvert due to an adjacent multi-propped basement excavation in clays. Field measurements from an excavation case history are first used to calibrate a baseline Hardening Soil Small Strain (HS-small) model, which is subsequently adopted for parametric study. Results indicate that the basement-box culvert interaction along the basement centerline can be considered as a plane strain condition when the length of excavation (L) reaches 14 H_e (i.e., final excavation depth). If a plane strain condition (i.e., L/H_e=12.0) is assumed for analyzing the basement-box culvert interaction of a short excavation (i.e., L/H_e=2.0), the maximum settlement and horizontal movement of the box culvert are overestimated significantly by up to 15.7 and 5.1 times, respectively. It is also found that the deformation of box culvert can be greatly affected by the basement excavation if the distance between the box culvert and retaining wall is less than 1.5 H_e. The induced deformation in the box culvert can be dramatically reduced by improving the ground inside the excavation or implementing other precautionary measures. For example, by adding jet grouting columns within the basement and installing an isolation wall behind the retaining structures, the maximum settlements of box culvert are shown to reduce by 37.2% and 13.4%, respectively.