Design and Follow up of 20 m Depth Nailed Wall

Dimensionnement et suivi d'une paroi clouée de 20 m de profondeur

Foued, Kanoun
Ministère de la défense nationale. Académie Navale Menzel Bourguiba, 7050, Tunisia. kanoun.foued@gmail.com

Slaheddine Haffoudhi
Hydrosol-Fondations.Rue Haroun Errachid - Z.I. Ksar Saîd - 2086 Mannouba, Tunis. Tunisia, Hydfond.hafslah@gnet.tn

Mounir Bouassida
Université de Tunis El Manar, Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis LR14ES03 Ingénierie Géotechnique, BP 37 Le
Belvédère 1002 Tunis, Tunisia, mounir.bouassida@fulbrightmail.org

ABSTRACT: A 12 to 20 m deep excavation in urban area is needed to build a health care center having five floors and three basements at
Ariana City (Tunisia). Geotechnical conditions consist mainly in very stiff fissured marl extending to 30 m deep with no presence of
water table. A nailed wall with shotcrete facing and a double wire-mesh is designed as a lateral support of the excavation. Nails with
different length from 4m to 18 m were installed. This paper presents the design of the nailed wall performed by Plaxis 2D software using
Mohr-Coulomb model for the soil and taking into account the in-situ stage construction. Observed lateral wall movements from
inclinometer measurements are found significantly smaller than those predicted by Plaxis 2D analysis. Backward analysis show that a
ratio equals to 10 of the soil deformation modulus to the pressuremeter modulus would give comparable lateral displacements of the
nailed wall.

RÉSUMÉ : La construction d'une clinique privée au gouvernorat de l'Ariana (cité Ennasr) composée de cinq étages et trois sous-sols a
nécessité l'exécution d'une excavation de profondeur variant de 12 à 20 m de profondeur. Le profil géotechnique est composé d'une
couche de marne fissurée, hors nappe d'eau, jusqu'à 30 m de profondeur. Pour assurer la stabilité de l'excavation une paroi clouée avec un
parement en béton projeté a été décidé. Un système de renforcement par des clous et tirants d'ancrage de longueur variable de 4 à 18 m a
été exécuté. Le dimensionnement de la paroi clouée menée par le logiciel Plaxis 2D incorporant une exécution selon le phasage des
travaux est présenté dans cet article. Les mesures des déplacements horizontaux à l'aide d'inclinomètres sont avérés largement inférieures
à ceux prédits par le logiciel Plaxis. Une analyse rétrograde a permis de conclure que le module de rigidité du sol en place est de l'ordre
dix fois celui du module pressiométrique pour retrouver le déplacement de la paroi clouée.
KEYWORDS: nailed wall, excavation, lateral displacement, nailing.
MOTS CLES: paroi clouée, excavation, déplacement horizontal, clouage.

1 INTRODUCTION In this paper focus is given on the design, follow up and

control during the progress of the 12-20 m deep excavation and
Opened excavations usually need the use of retaining structures the installation of inclusions (nails). Recorded results from
to ensure the control of lateral displacements in admissible inclinometer measurements and pull-out tests are presented and
limits along with the progress of scheduled works. In case of synthesized for the validation of numerical predictions obtained
opened excavations having both big area and high depth, by Plaxis software. Figures 1 and 2 show up the components of
especially in urban suburbs, reinforcement by nails is often retaining system, i.e. the nails installed in inclined borings; the
recommended with staged construction. double wire-mesh as lateral support of inclusions network
The Amilcar Polyclinic project at Ennasser City is a five separated by the Enkadrain synthetic material.
floors building with three basements located on a site having 9
m vertical drop between its eastern and western boundaries. The
construction of the building requires an excavation of 12 m on
the west side up to 20.5 m on the east side. This excavation is
surrounded by two residential buildings on the north and south
sides at 7 m from the excavation edge, the Borj Turki road on
the west side and a car parking on the east side. All the
residential buildings are founded on footings embedded at 2
meters below their basements. Due to the large depth of the
excavation and its large dimensions in plan, a lateral support
system is necessary to ensure not only the stability of the sides
of the excavation and its banks but also to control the horizontal
and vertical displacements of the surrounding buildings. The
lateral support system used to brace the excavation consists in
nailed walls.

Figure 1. Overview of the installation of retaining system

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 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

2 DESIGN OF NAILING REINFORCEMENT

The design of the nailed wall was based on a soil-
structure interaction study to estimate the forces and
deformations in the various elements constituting the lateral
support and to assess the overall stability of the soil-wall system.
The study is conducted using the Plaxis software which
allows to take into account the scheduled construction stages.
The adopted model for calculations assumes the soil as an
elastoplastic medium governed by the Mohr-Coulomb law, the
nails as embedded beam row characterized by their axial
stiffness EA and bending stiffness EI and the linear skin friction,
the facing is assimilated as a plate characterized by its axial and
bending stiffness (Clouterre, 1992).
A plane strain model of the reinforced soil has been
built using the Plaxis 2D software V9. Stage construction
option including six phases was performed. In terms of
conservative design, the numerical calculations were carried out
for the East side where the maximum depth is 20.5m.
Figure 2. Details of nail fixation within welded mesh by metallic plate The adopted stage construction consisted in activating, at
each phase of prediction, two horizontal rows of nails with 3 m
Geotechnical investigation consisted of two boreholes and two excavation depth, i.e:
pressuremeter tests carried out on project site. The geotechnical Initial phase: initialized earth state.
conditions are characterized by a thick fractured marl formation Phase 1 : excavation of 3 m depth
intercalated by gravelly layers 0.60 to 1.30 m thick. No water Phase 2 : activation of two rows of nails over 3 m excavated
table was encountered up to 30 m depth. The geotechnical depth and activation of 3 m excavation below the previous
profile is described in Table 1. Unit weight of 20 kN/m3 has phase of excavation.
been assumed for the clayey clay and fractured marl layers of 6 Phase 3 : start again from phase N° 2
and 24 m thickness, respectively. Last phase: activation of nails executed along the last row
located two meters above.
Table 1. Geotechnical parameters of soil layers Figure 4 shows the output of Plaxis software which illustrates
Layer E (MPa) EM (MPa) φ’(°) c’(kPa) the total displacement. From this figure the maximum
Marl clay 160 67 21 25 displacement at the head of nailed wall is around 4.68 cm.
Fractured 230 110 26 65
marl

2 RETAINING SOLUTION
The lateral support system is a nailed wall which consists in
nailing the top four meters of the excavation by 4 rows of HA32
rebars of 4 m length only because of the existence of the
residential building (Figure 3). The horizontal and vertical
spacing between nails are 2 m and 1 m respectively. The nailing
continues with 3 rows GEWI 500/550 rebars 18 m long
followed by 12 m long HA32 rebars to the base of the
excavation. Both HA32 and GEWI rebars have an elastic limit
of 500 MPa. The horizontal and the vertical spacing for both
rebars are 2 m and 1.5 m respectively.

HA32 7m EXISTING BUILDING

L : 4m

1 5m GEWI 32
L : 18 m Figure 4. Predicted total displacement at the final stage of the
excavation.
HA32
L : 12m 3 EXECUTION OF THE NAILED WALL
Prior to excavation, three inclinometer casings had been
installed at the middle and behind the east, the south and the
Figure 3. Elevation view on the south flank of the excavation
north flanks of the excavation to measure the horizontal
displacements of the soil during the excavation. For each

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 Technical Committee 207 / Comité technique 207

stage of the excavation of depth from 3 to 4 m the location of

the inclusions to be installed are marked and the boreholes are
executed in conformity with the designed length which varies
between 4 m to 18 m and inclination of 10° with respect to
horizontal. Then follows the installation of nails which are
grouted by a cement-mortar of high dosage.
The placement of welded mesh of 20 cm in thickness is
proceeded by prefabricated panels. The head of installed nails
are embedded by 20x20 cm2 metallic plate.
For the last excavation pass the rows of nails are not
executed; the facing will be protected against alteration by shot
concrete. Its stability is assured by the bearing retaining
structure of the building to be constructed.
The excavation was proceeded in stages, in each stage 3 m
of soil are excavated and two rows of nails were installed. Figure 5. Equipement and follow-up of pull-out test on HA32
Geosynthetic strip drains 1 m wide were fixed to the excavation nail type.
facing between the nails (figures 5 and 6). The stage is followed
by installing the facing with the welded mesh and completed by
the shotcrete. The detailed execution of shot concrete was
described in the final report delivered after the final approval of
conformity of executed retaining system (Simpro, 2016).

3.1 Installation of nails

The progress in depth of excavation and installation of nailed
wall happened with 2 to 3 m thickness. Excavation and retaining
system have been proceeded as initially designed. Few
modifications were allowed for the execution when existing
networks close to the facing were encountered.
The nails reinforcement was executed with variable horizontal
spacing from 1.5 to 2.5 m, as a function of depth, and fixed
vertical spacing of 1.5 m over three sides of the excavation.
Exception was made on the South side where a 1 m vertical
spacing, over the first 4 m in depth, was executed by short nails, 4
m length, due to the presence of existing buildings distanced 7 m
from the facing of nailed wall (Fig. 2).
During the progress of excavation works pullout tests were
carried out on nails of 4 m, 11 m and 18 m in length for the
measurement of mobilized strength by those nails. The unit skin
resistance deduced from the pullout test conducted on nail of 18
m in length was estimated as 150 kPa.
3.2 Validation of the design
Four pull out tests had been conducted on nails during
different stages of excavation. The tests showed that the actual
skin friction is about 150 kPa in the top clay marl layer and 250
kPa in the fractured marl which are higher than the adopted
design value of 120 kPa. Imposed displacement rate and fixed
stress level tests have been carried out as detailed by Hydrosol-
Foundations report (2015).
Figure 5 illustrates the used equipement and the follow-up
during full scale pull-out test carried out on HA32 nail type of
12 m length installed at the West side of excavation.
The load-displacement curve plotted from pull-out test
measurements is sketched in Figure 6. From this curve the
failure load of tested nail equals by 400 kN.
Figure 6. Load-displacement curve of pull-out test on HA 32
nail type of 12 m length
Back analysis shows that this displacement corresponds to
values of Young modulus ten times the values adopted in the
prediction analysis. Given the very small measured
displacements, which are in the range of the precisions of the
inclinometer, it is believed that the pressuremeter is not suitable
for measuring elastic properties of hard soils for which very
high elastic modulus are expected corresponding to very small
deformation. Characterization with dilatometer tests would be
more suitable for the characterization of the marl layer.
Verticality of the wall facing was the crucial issue along with
the progress of excavated depth; especially because of the high
stiffness of marl layer. Such problematic situation was
overcame by high precision topographic survey at the end of
each excavated level.
Figure 7 shows a picture of the nailed wall at the end
of excavation. It noted at the bottom of excavation no
reinforcement has been executed. This recommendation
followed from the updated stability analysis of the retaining
structure where the results of pull out tests have been
considered. It took nine months to achieve 3900 m2 of nailed
walls.

4 FOLLOW-UP- AND CONTROL OF EXCAVATION

The evolution of lateral displacement of the nailed wall is
provided by inclinometer measurements carried out after each
excavation stage. All measurements did not show significant
lateral displacement of the wall, the maximum meausured
horizontal displacement was 2 to 3 mm at the top of the wall.
Inclinometer measurements conducted, on 20 November 2015,
at the sixth phase of excavation which corresponds to 5m less
before reaching the final excavation depth show that the
magnitude of displacement approximates some millimeters.
5 CONCLUSION
A lateral support system of a large and 20.5 m deep excavation
was needed for the construction of a Polyclinic in an urban area
consisting in nailed wall. This retaining structure had been
designed on the basis of a soil-structure interaction analysis
using Plaxis 2D software. Horizontal displacements deduced
from inclinometer measurements are not significant (few
millimeters). whereas the analysis predicted 4.5 cm at the top of
the wall. Back analysis showed that the elastic modulus
should be taken equal ten times the modulus obtained from
pressuremeter tests.

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 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

Figure 7. View of completed nailed retaining structure over 20

m depth.
The authors believe that pressuremeter test is unsuitable to
measure very high elastic modulus of hard soil corresponding to
very small deformation.

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.The authors acknowledge the support and approval from the
Polyclinic Amilcar staff to publish data and results of the case
history in this paper.

7 REFERENCES
Clouterre. (1993). Soil nailing recommendations (English
recommendations “Recommandations Clouterre, 1991. FHWA-SA-
93-026.
Hydrosol-Fondations (2014). Rapport de reconnaissance
géotechnique. Tunisia.
Hydrosol-Fondations. (2015). Note technique d’exécution des essais sur
clous d’essai. Tunisia.
Simpro (2016). Rapport de fin des travaux de la paroi clouée.Tunisia

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