• 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.