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International Conference on Case Histories in (1984) - First International Conference on Case
Geotechnical Engineering Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
May 6th
T. F. Song
Moh and Associates, Inc., Taipei, Taiwan, China
Recommended Citation
Moh, Z. C. and Song, T. F., "Performance of Diaphragm Walls in Deep Foundation Excavations" (1984). International Conference on
Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 34.
http://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/1icchge/1icchge-theme9/34
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Performance of Diaphragm Walls in Deep
Foundation Excavations
Z.C.Moh
President, Moh and Associates, Inc., Taipei, Taiwan, China
T. F. Song
Associate and Manager of Civil and Structures Department, Moh and Associates, Inc.
SYNOPSIS Two case studies of using diaphragm wall as earth retaining structure for deep excavation
are reported. Case A concerns excavation down to a depth of 14.7 min alternate layers of soft
silty clay and silty sand. Diaphragm walls of 70 em thick and 22 m deep were installed into a dense
silty sand stratum. In Case B, diaphragm walls of 60 em thick were constructed in very soft clayey
soil without penetration into any firm stratum. In both cases, instrumentations including piezom-
eters, inclinometers, earth pressure cells, reinforcing bar transducers, heave stakes, settlement
points and strut strain gauges were installed and monitored throughout the construction. Comparison
of predictions based on simplified theory and empirical relationships were made with the actual
performance behavior of the diaphragm wall and the subsoils. It was found that elastic mode of
soil-wall system can reasonably predict the behavior of diaphragm wall. In sandy soils, arching
effect has significant effect on the magnitude and d~stribution of earth pressure on the wall. With
the assistance of instrumentation monitoring during excavation work, factor of safety against base
failure as low as 1.05 was used in the design.
1335
c, c, w, c,
Depth Oetcrlptlan
Ill
N
Value
l'j.
ICN/ni'
w.
.,. ••
KNI...Z detnl ICNI...Z
••
...... o.,lll Description
Ill
N
Value
l't,
ICNim3 % KNIJn2
••
........
C,
KfVMZ
••
.......
Silty Clay 3-8 18.9 29-35 !19.8 9.6 69.6 6.5 l·Z.I
lladeflll 2-6 - 28 - - - -
7
0 31
.....ilL Silty Cloy 1·4 17.7 3!5· 4ll 0 32-7 1&.7 17.9
Silty Sand 2-26 19.7 18-31
0 35
- - ll·ll
17
20.5
Silty Clay 4 ·14 18.8 28-35 30.4 26 48.1 14
Silty Sand 5-6 18.1 30•34 0 31.5 - -
9·12.3
38
Silty Sand 18.48 19.8 15•22 0 41.7 - - 123.a-4C
Gravel - 21.8 12 - - - - Weathered
45
147.5 Clay 20·27 19.7 22. 28 33.3 29.2 19.6 6.7 Below
Sandstone so - - - - - -
!10 Gravel - - - - - - - 40
With Shale
1336
First International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology
http://ICCHGE1984-2013.mst.edu
0
inclinometers, earth pressure
Roosevelt Road cells, and reinforcing bar
0
0
/ ~ u
0 transducers in the diaphragm
• 0
" wall, piezometers and settle-
'!- 10 20m ment points within and around
SCALE the excavated area, heave
stakes in the excavation
+ +
area, and vibrating wire
strain gauges on the steel
struts. The locations of
. the various instruments
except the strain gauges for
Case B are shown in Figs. 1
p and 2 for the TPC and TNAEDC
+ + projects, respectively •
•
PREDICTION AND COMPARISON
WITH ~~ASUREMENTS
0 .. .
Method of Analysis
40 em ,. con tl nuous
Bored Pile , 0 16m
length
.
"
E I ectricity
e
.
.
0
Transmission
Station
"
0 e
<>
<>
<>
<>
<>
"
"
\ simplicity. The main assump-
tions of this method may in
fact deviate considerably
from the actual behavior of
the retaining structure. In
" applying this method, selec-
tion of the magnitudes of the
active force and the coeffi-
"C
0
(Site Bl cient of subgrade reaction
+
0
a: ks often becomes a state-of-
the-art for the designer.
For the two cases discussed
v in this paper, the above
Parking Lot
~ mentioned elastic model was
"'I used for prediction of the
LEGENDS: wall behavior. In the anal-
~
.c ysis, the soil-wall system
<.) + Heave Stoke
0 Inclinometer was idealized as illustrated
Pneumatic Piezometer
in Fig. 4. The diaphragm
" wall was divided into a num-
" Standpipe Piezometer ber of beam element, the
0 Observation Well earth pressure acting on the
• Reinforcing Bor Transducer wall was assumed to be in
a trapezoidal distribution,
• Vibrating Wire Strain Gage
and the soil reaction was
0 Setr lament Point
repretented by a series of
Ill Bench Mark l!lprings.
Iii Earth Pr8S$Uf8 Cell
Fig. 2. Site Plan and Instrumentation Layout of Case B Before excavation, the earth
pressure is in an at-rest
condition. This pressure
was installed as the retaining structure. It tends to decrease as the
was further specified that the surcharge load excavation proceeds nue to inward movement of
along the northern boundary within a 4 m wide the retaining structure. After completion of
strip was maintained at less than 0.5 tons per the substructure, the earth pressure increases
sq.m. (4.9 KN per sq.m.) in order to ensure again. For the analysis it was therefore
construction safety. Internal bracing system assumed that the earth pressure acting on the
consists of steel H struts was used during the diaphragm wall was equal to the average value
excavation work. of the at-rest pressure and active pressure.
INSTRUMENTATIONS The modulus of subgrade reaction ks for soils
below the excavation surface can be estimated
In view of the large area and extremely soft from the following equation:
soil formation involved in the strutted exca-
vations for the two projects reported above
seven types of monitoring instruments were '
installed. Thes·e include piezometers, where 'F •, is the factor of safety, and • qa',
1337
......
0
0
0
earth retaining structure. Figure 5 presents
the deflection curves of the diaphragm wall
._m
-0
u ...
0
LL-=0
..
YSP t
Sheet Oefleotion (em l
01
<I a
tr'I
---51
Surcharge
I GL.-4.0M 0
q= I 11m2 I ""''A« I
~-~------~------~~----~~--~--J
a.o e.e 7.o 7.15 8.0
I
~"- Predicled
Depth of Excavation, m
~---52
J GL.- 7.7m
Fig. 3 Factor of Safety Against Base Failure I ....... ®
of Different Types of Retaining Systems I
for the TNAEDC Strutted Excavation I
E • J---53
10
I GL.- IPxt: ®
I
.
.t:
Q. I
Lateral Bracing 0 12 ~---s•
Lateral Forces ,.
of Bracing System Acting on
Oi a ph r a gm Wa II 16 Observed
1338
~~------+-------~------~3~----~4
0 Completion of 1st stage excavation
DISTANCE FROM EXCAVATION
DEPTH OF EXCAVATION ® Completion of 2nd stage excowtion
ZONE I - SAND ANO SOFT TO 1-i.AAD CLAY , AVERAGE ® Completion of R.C. Mot Foundation
WORKMANSHIP
ZONE n - VERY SOFT TO SOFT CLAY TO A LIMITED Fig. 7. Deflection Curves of Diaphragm Wall at
DEPTH OF CLAY BELOW BASE OF EXC~TION the TNAEDC Site
ZONE m.- VERY SOFT TO SOFT CLAY TO A SIGNIFICANT
DEPTH BELOW BASE OF EXCAVATION maximum deflection of the steel sheet pile after
the 4th stage of excavation developed near the
Fig. 6. Comparison of Predicted Ground bottom of the excavation surface and was
Settlement with Measured Values increasing at the rate of 20 mm per day. This
increase in deflection was arrested soon after
As described in previous section, two types of the pouring of a 20 em thick layer of plain
retaining structure were used for the TNAEDC concrete at the base. At the depth of 9 m below
project. YSP III sheet piles were used as the ground surface the sheet pile has developed
temporary retaining system in Zone A whilst 60 very large distortion, with the ratio of maxi-
em thick diaphragm wall was used in Zone B. mum deflection to distance reaching a value as
Both types of retaining structure penetrated high as 1/105. This large distortion indicates
into the subsoil to a depth of 16 m. That that a plastic hinge has developed in the sheet
means the retaining systems have not penetrated pile.
into the underlying hard stratum. Figure 7
presents the deflection curves of the diaphragm For this project, since dewatering was not al-
wall. During the first three stages of excava- lowed prior to or during excavation, settlement
tion, the diaphragm wall moved more or less of the surrounding area can only be attributed
parallel to the excavation surface. In the to loss of ground caused by lateral displacement
last two stages of excavation, in addition to of the earth retaining system. The most impor-
inward parallel movement, the lower part of the tant structure in the vicinity of the excavation
wall has yielded inward more than the upper work was the Transmission Station located on the
part due to reduction of the penetration depth north side of the site. The effect of the exca-
of the walL The preidcted deflection curves vation of Zone A has caused only minor settle-
were obtained by multiplying an empirical fac- ment in the Transmission Station area with a
tor of 1.5 to the theoretically calculated maximum value of only 0.55 em, even though the
values using finite element method. steel sheet piles had undergone significant
amount of lateral movement. On the other hand,
Deflection curves of the steel sheet piles in the distance between the excavation of Zone B
Zone A of the project site are shown in Fig. 8. ·and the outer wall of the Transmission Station
Due to extreme softness of the subsoil, was only 9 m. The maximum measured settlement
1339
E 12 10
~
9~
..
c
14
BL
I
71-
s~
I
19 I
E
... ='-~
20 " ,._
>
::r:"
" 3-
22 I
I
2-
0 Cornplettor- of 1st S:aoe Excavation
® CompftTton af 2nd Stooe Execvation
26~ (!) ComptettQI'\ of 3rd StOQe Excavation
ci
13-,!0
1341
2
2
4
4
PrMicted
• 6
8
E " E 8
'ii 10
J; 0 10
31;
....0
12
....0
...
.c
.c
12
Q.
c! 14
.
Q.
0
14
16
16
22
Fig. 12. Comparison of Predicted Bending
Fig. 11. Comparison of Predicted Bending Moments with Measurements of the
Moments with Measurements of the TNAEDC Diaphragm Wall
TPC Diaphragm Wall
CONCLUSIONS (3) Elastic model of soil-diaphragm wall sys-
tem can be used in predicting the wall behavior
The economic value and engineering feasibility In the analysis when average value of active
of using diaphragm walls as both temporary and earth pressure and at rest pressure is used,
permanent earth retaining structure for deep the factor c for calculating the modulus of
excavations in high density urban areas are subgrade reaction of sandy soil is taken at 10,
well recognized. From the two case records the predicted values of deflection and moment
described in this paper the following conclu- are very close to the field measured values.
sions can be drawn in regard to the behavior In soft cohesive soils, when the value of facto
of diaphragm walls: c is taken at 6 to 10, the calculated lateral
deformations are slightly lower than the meas-
(1) In sandy soil, the diaphragm wall tends ured values, however, the estimated curvature
to rotate around the wall base towards the of the wall agrees well with the measurement.
excavation surface and behaves like a canti-
lever. As the excavation progresses, the (4) Behavior of diaphragm wall in deep excava-
upper portion of the wall deflects more towards tion work is closely related to the stiffness
the excavation and stresses in the wall in- of the bracing system, magnitude of preload on
crease gradually due to the arch action of the the struts, magnitude of surcharge surrounding
sand. Stresses in the mid section of the wall the wall, construction procedure and selection
start to decrease and gradually reaches equi- the magnitude of coefficient of subgrade reac-
librium as soon as the base mat is constructed. tion.
(2) In the very soft silty clay stratum in ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Taipei, when the diaphragm wall is not pene-
trating into any hard stratum deflection of The authors are indebted to the cooperations
diaphragm wall continues to increase with pro- and assistance readered by the staff of the
gress of excavation. In the early stages of Taiwan Power Corr.pany and the BES Engineering
excavation, more deflection occurs in the corporation during the field instrumentation
upper part of the wall. The lower portion of monitoring work. Particular gratitudes are due
the wall yields rapidly as the excavations is to Messrs S.C. Liu, Y.C. Shen, and H.M. Chang c
near completion. TPC, Messrs C.H. Li and C.K. Lin of BES
13-!2
1343