Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
3D analysis is being increasingly used on major projects to refine traditional analyses to facilitate
leaner design and keener construction programmes. This paper presents two recent projects, still under construction at the time of writing where 3D analyses has been used in just this way. Capitol Development in downtown Singapore comprises a 6 level (25m) deep top down basement constructed
with contiguous bored pile walls with superstructure up to 12 storeys high and the conservation of
Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building and Stamford House. Two underground connections are also made
to nearby MRT City Hall MRT and the new Stamford Hotel. The second, Tanjong Pagar mixed use
development will stand as Singapores tallest tower at 290m high once complete (due in 2016) and
comprises an 18m (3 level) deep basement immediately adjacent to raft founded Tanjong Pagar MRT
station. Both developments have in common a proximity to high profile neighbours, sensitive to
ground movements, making it important to understand with accuracy the anticipated ground movements that would be caused by the developments. Consequently top down construction methodology
was selected for both sites, which also allowed faster progress of the above ground structures. This paper outlines the challenges experienced during the ground investigation works on both projects, the
subsequent design and its verification through the use of 3D finite element modeling, with some comparison with initial construction/field monitoring.
1 INTRODUCTION
Tanjong Pagar Tower and Capitol Development are two major mixed use building developments
which started formal design in early 2011. Capitol is set for completion in 2014/2015 with Tanjong
Pagar following just behind in 2016, artistic impressions of each development are shown in Figures 1
and 2.
Both projects offered significant design and construction challenges for the project teams. Both have
significant basements to be constructed within close proximity to sensitive existing and high profile
structures including MRT stations, historic and iconic buildings. Arup were the geotechnical designers for both projects.
PLAXIS 3D v2011 was used by Arup on each project to confirm suspected behaviour due to 3D effects of the excavation that could not be well modeled by other 2D software or easily through manipulation of output from 3D software. This paper will detail lessons learnt in using the Plaxis 3D finite
element software to verify ground movements estimations to lend for leaner design decisions, gain
confidence from authorities and push construction programme.
The development will tower over the other buildings in the vicinity with its 64 storeys, making it the
tallest building in Singapore. Figure 5 shows the detailed site plan showing the surrounding buildings
and boundaries. The main tower is founded on a 4m thick raft supported on 1.8m diameter bored piles,
extending about 40m below the base of the raft.
Figure 9 : Capitol extract from Figure 10: Updated FCBB Figure 11: Schematic of ground
geology map (DSTA, 2009)
locations (Shirlaw 1990)
model
3.3 Key risks to the project
There were a number of key geotechnical challenges on the project. The shallower ground conditions
made it difficult to ascertain the geology (distinguishing between Jurong Formation and FCBB), deeper GI was required to establish this.
Additionally there was a large number of existing H piles which had supported the old car park building which obstructed the new works and required removal.
To add to this, the basement layout was complex, irregular in plan shape and of varying levels. The
main basement was 6 levels deep with a large area it connected to 2 other structures including the
MRT and Stamford House via a 2 level deep passageway and 3 level deep L shaped basement respectively.
The Capitol site is surrounded by sensitive buildings such as St Andrew Church, Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building and Stamford hotel. Furthermore, it is located close to the City Hall MRT station and its
two running tunnels. Top down construction method was adopted for capitol project to better control
ground movement and allow for both superstructure and basement construction at the same time.
3.4 Why 3D modeling was employed
3D modeling was employed part way through the project when addressing anticipated movement at
the MRT structures and the model was extended to include the 3 level linkway.
An acceptable and accurate prediction of excavation-induced movement and associated damage assessment for the adjacent sensitive buildings was essential for the feasibility of this project. Initially
2D Plaxis analysis was used to size the wall elements and for early predictions of ground movement
behind the new basement structures. Oasys XDisp was used to superimpose these results to estimate
the 3D effects. Unfortunately, the superposition did not work well possibly due to the geometry of
the excavation (complex plan shape and varying excavation levels). It was felt the 2D results were
over predicting actual movement that would be experienced by the neighbouring structures, 2D finite
element analysis was considered inadequate to predict movement at the structure location. Therefore,
to more realistically predict the ground behaviour under applied loading, 3D finite element analysis
was proposed.
Later in the programme, once piling was progressing on site, the Contractor wanted to adjust their construction sequence to release pressure on the construction programme, the Main Contractor was opti-
mising construction sequence to shorten the Main basement construction period through progressing
excavation in the floor below before the casting of the slab for the floor above was complete. For
basement construction, it was proposed to cast A1 area slabs by two phases. First phase is to cast half
slab, second phase is to excavate under this first half slab while the second half slab is being cast. 3D
finite element analysis is essential to capture this two phases slab casting and excavation process to
validate the optimized construction sequence.
3.5 Approach to the 3D model
3.5.1 Constitutive modeling
To model the soil behaviour, the elastic perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model is adopted for all soil
types. Different element models were adopted to simulate structural members. Retaining walls, permanent slabs and temporary struts as well as MRT tunnels were modelled as linear elastic plate element,
while kingpost in A2 area was modelled adopting beam element. In addition, embedded pile element
was used to simulate all foundation piles. Structural members and its corresponding material element
are illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Mixed ground conditions are sometimes found in the Central Business District in Singapore. Materials which are similar to the residual soil of Jurong Formation are encountered above the Fort Canning
Boulder Bed, occasionally. In some locations the material so described may form part Fort Canning
Clay, but without the characteristic quartzite boulders. In other locations, it may form part of the Old
Alluvium. (quoted from CP4 2.2.1.3.3). Given the variability of these Mixed ground conditions, the
Mohr Coulomb soil model was adopted as it is generally considered more conservative for estimation
of ground movement and therefore would better accommodate local variation in soil properties without
adversely impacting on design.
culation stages were built based on the scheduled construction program and sequence. Plastic calculation was performed for every stage following the initial equilibrium calculation.
4 FIELD COMPARISON
4.1 Monitoring Instrumentation
Located immediately adjacent to the existing underground MRT station and buildings, tight control
over the construction works are required. Therefore, a comprehensive monitoring scheme was implemented to ensure that the construction induced movements stayed within the allowable limits.
Automatic Tunnel Monitoring System (ATMS) which consist of automated total stations and prisms to
check the lateral and vertical movement of existing tunnel structure. Monitoring prisms are installed
within monitoring zone at 3m interval within zone of influence and 5m interval before and after influence zone. MEMS Tilt Beam Sensors were installed between tracks to measure the possible twist during the construction period. Vibration meter were installed on the tunnel wall to catch possible vibration caused by the piling or other construction activities.
Building movements and tilt were measured by building settlement marker and tiltmeter. Performance
of the ERSS walls were measured by cluster of instruments which consists of inclinometer, water
standpipe and 3 tips piezometer.
4.2 Tanjong Pagar Mixed Use Development
IW7(Maxwell)
105
105
105
100
100
100
95
95
95
90
85
Elevation(mRL)
110
80
90
85
80
Predicted_EXC_B1
Predicted_EXC_B1
Actual_EXC_B2
Actual_EXC_B3
Actual_EXC_B3
20
30
WallDeflection(mm)
40
10
Actual_EXC_B1
Actual_EXC_B2
Actual_EXC_B3
70
10
Predicted_EXC_B3
75
Actual_EXC_B1
Actual_EXC_B2
70
Predicted_EXC_B2
Predicted_EXC_B3
75
Actual_EXC_B1
85
Predicted_EXC_B2
Predicted_EXC_B3
75
90
80
Predicted_EXC_B1
Predicted_EXC_B2
10
IW8(MRTSide)
110
Elevation(mRL)
Elevation(mRL)
IW4(WallichStreet)
110
70
0
10
20
30
WallDeflection(mm)
40
10
10
20
30
WallDeflection(mm)
40
The predicted lateral deflection from the 3D Plaxis analysis for IW-21 and IW-9 is shown in red for
the final stage of excavation. The work suspension level indicated is obtained from 2D analysis. The
measured inclinometer readings are lower than the predicted deflection.
For IW-9, the adjacent building has 2 basements and is founded on bored piles. In the 3D analysis, onerous loading condition was assumed in each of the 6 level excavation stage and the deflection at each
stage was accumulated until the final excavation stage. The actual wall movements are generally less
than predicted values as the onerous loading conditions may not occurred.
From the measured inclinometer readings, it is likely that the stiffness of the mixed soil within the excavation above the FCBB is much higher than the values adopted in the FEM analysis.
References
Christian, J.T. and Carrier III, W.D. (1978). Janbu, Bjerrum and Kjaernslis chart reinterpreted, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 15, 123, 436.
DSTA (2009). Geology of Singapore 2nd edition. Defence Science and Technology Agency, Singapore.
H.G. Poulos & E.H. Davis (1980). Pile foundation analysis and design.
J.C.W.Ong and N.Osborne (2006). Piezometric changes during deep excavation, International Conference on Deep Excavation, 28-30 June 2006, Singapore.
JN Shirlaw, KB Poh, RN Hwang (1990). Properties and origins of Singapore Boulder Bed, Tenth
Southeast Asian Geotechnical Conference, 16-20 April, 1990, Taipei.
Tomlinson, M. J. (Michael John) (2008). Pile design and construction practice.
Wen, D. & Lin, K.Q. (2002). The effect of deep excavation on pore water pressure changes in the Old
Alluvium and under-drainage of marine clay in Singapore. Kastner, Emeriault, Dies, Gullloux (ed.),
Geotechnical aspects of underground construction in soft ground; Proc. intern. symp., Toulouse,
France, 23-25 October 2002.