A COMPREHENSIVE METHOD FOR DESIGN OF ANCHORED

WALL FOR DEEP EXCAVATION

Aiguo Yao
1
, I.M. Smith
2
, Fenglin Tang
3
ABSTRACT
A major problem engineers face in the analysis of excavation by the classical methods is the difficulty of
predicting displacements around the support structure. To solve this problem, finite element method (FEM)
is increasingly employed. However, so many engineers in the field have little knowledge of FEM that
hampered the method to spread in practice.
In this paper authors attempt to provide a useful tool for field engineer, who know little of FEM, to design
the structure by both classical pressure diagram and FEM methods at same time. At first, calculate depth of
pile and anchor force by each of classical methods, including free earth support, fixed earth support, a
modified and an improved fixed earth support, and then compute the displacements by FEM method for each
situation respectively. For FEM method, an elasto-plastic theory and a Mohr-Coulomb constitutive law are
adopted for soils and the mesh is automatically formed. After comparison, a safer and more economical
design can be selected. To support this method, a computer package on Windows 95 base has been
developed by the authors. Results of a practical example show that the improvement of fixed earth support
method is better for the design.
INTRODUCTION
With the development of economy, many high-rises have been built in China in the last two decades.
Correspondingly, many deep excavations have been constructed. Among them, a lot of failures and
problems have been encountered. In one city, failures were as many as a third of the total number of
excavation in foundation engineering. Yeqing Tang (1999) investigated 168 of failures of deep excavation,
and concluded that 40% of them were caused by design. From this point, we can hardly say that the theories
and methods for designing deep excavation are satisfactory though many methods available at present.
Jean-Louis Briaud (1998) summarized the methods for designing supports of deep excavation. He
broadly divided the methods into three categories, namely pressure diagram method or classical method,
beam column method and finite element method. The first one is simple and widely used in China because
almost all of the local and national codes stipulated to use it. Second one is increasingly being used for some
software based on this theory has been developed. However, the two methods can not predict displacements
around the support though to analyze the displacement is rather important in some case. For example, a deep
excavation with the support of anchored sheet pile wall was constructed in Wuhan in 1994. The designed
depth of excavation is 12.6 m. When excavated to 7 m, adjacent road settled for 8 cm and a pier of the
viaduct horizontally moved for 5 cm. The project had to be stopped to deal with the problems. The finite
element method can calculate any displacements and stress at required points, but its complexity
1
Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan 430074, China)
2
Division of Civil Engineering, University of Manchester (M13 9PL, UK)
3
Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan 430074, China)
limit it to use widely. We attempt to combine classical pressure diagram method with elasto-plastic finite
element method to design support for excavation. What we call "comprehensive method" here have two
meanings: using several pressure diagram methods; using pressure diagram methods and finite element
method together. To support this method we have developed a computer package on Windows 95 base.
Almost all of work users need to do is to click corresponding item of the menu.
PRINCIPLE
Computing Shear Forces and Moments
Assuming n layers of soil exits for excavation, the active and passive earth pressure can be computed by
following equations:
where 1 i n,
e
ai1
= active earth pressure on the top of i th layer (kPa),
e
ai2
= active earth pressure on the bottom of i th layer (kPa),
e
pi1
= passive earth pressure on the top of i th layer (kPa),
e
pi2
= passive earth pressure on the bottom of i th layer (kPa),
z
i-1
= depth of the top of i th layer (m),
z
i
= depth of the bottom of i th layer (m),
= unit weight (kN/m
3
),
q = uniformly distributed load (kPa),
c
i
= cohesion of the layer,

i
= friction angle of the layer (
0
).
Generally speaking, earth pressure distributed as shown in Fig. 1.
Define a singular function
The shear force caused by earth pressure in a layer is
The bending moment caused by earth pressure in a
layer is
If m supports are arranged for excavation, the
bending moment M
a
(x) of anchor forces to x section
before constructing i th anchor is
where i>j and
(8) ) 2 / 45 ( tan
(7) ), 2 / 45 ( tan
(6) ] [
(5) 2 )] ( [
(4) 2
(3) ) (
(2) 2 )] ( [
(1) 2 ) (
2
2
1
1
1
1 2
1
1
1
1
1 2
1
i pi
i ai
j j
i
j
j p
pi i pi i i i p pi
pi i pi p pi
j
i
j
j j e
ai i ai i i i e ai
ai i ai e ai
K
K
H z H z G
k c k z z G e
k c k G e
z z G
k c k z z G q e
k c k G q e

+ =
=
> < > < =
+ + =
+ =
=
+ + =
+ =

>

>= <
. 0 while ,
, 0 while , 0
i i
i
i
x x x x
x x
x x
(9)
) ( 2
) (

) ( 2
) (
) (
2
2
1 2
1 2
2
1
1 2
1 2
2 2 1 1
> <

> <

+ > < > < =

i
i i
i i
i
i i
i i
i i i i
x x
x x
q q
x x
x x
q q
x x q x x q x Q
(10)
) ( 6
) (

) ( 6
) (
2
1
2
1
) (
3
2
1 2
1 2
3
1
1 2
1 2 2
2 2
2
1 1
> <

> <

+ > < > < =

i
i i
i i
i
i i
i i
i i i i
x x
x x
q q
x x
x x
q q
x x q x x q x M
(11) ) ( ) (
1
1
j i
i
j
j a
h h T x M =

=
(14). )
2 1
( D D
d
K H L + + =
h
i
= the distance from an anchor which will be arranged to section x,
h
j
= the distance from an anchor which has been arranged to section x, and
T
j
= an anchor force which has been arranged.
Computing Depth of Penetration
For cantilever sheet pile wall, the minimum depth of penetration D
min
can be found from equation M
c
=0.
Using incremental iteration method, increase D from H to (H+ D
min
) and judge if
M
c
=0. Let D
k
=D
0
+kD
D
0
=first value, 0 or a small value,
K= steps of iteration,
D = increment of a step.
Let
CRI= judging criteria for increment
If CRI>0, continue. If CRI<0, stop loop and D
min
=D
k
. The design length of the pile is determined by
Where K
d
= safe factor of the pile.
Different Methods for Designing the Supports
Among Chinese national or local codes for designing support of excavation, there essentially are three
different methods for the work, namely free earth support, fixed earth support and modified fixed earth
support with rectangular diagram of active earth pressure under the bottom of excavation.
(a) Free earth Support Method
Computing depth of pile and anchor
force by M
c
=0 and Q
c
=0. Where c is
a section at the bottom of a pile.
(b) Fixed earth Pressure Support
Method
Assuming a section b as shown in
Figure 2, where active earth pressure
equals to passive earth pressure, is a
section where bending moment is down
to zero. Under this condition, the depth
D
1
from the bottom of excavation to
section b can be easily determined.
Then computing anchor force and shear
force which is needed for balance at
section b by M
b
=0, V
k
=Q
b
, and
computing D
2
by M
c
=0. Design
length of pile is
(c) Modified Fixed Earth Support Method
(12)
) (
) (
1
+
+
=
k
k
D H M
D H M
CRI
(13)
min
D K H L
d
+ =
Start
Figure 1: Diagram computing shear force and
bending moment to section x.
Figure 2: Schematic for computing the length of the pile
(15). )
2 1
(
a
D D
d
K H L + + =
Figure 3: Flowchart of the comprehensive method
Compared with fixed earth support method, the only difference of modified fixed method is simplified
the active earth pressure as a rectangular diagram under the bottom of excavation.
(d) Improved Fixed Earth Support Method
The authors of this paper propose an improved fixed earth support method to compute D
2a
(as shown in
Figure 2) instead of D
2
by Q
c
=0. Compute the length of pile by following equation
The anchor forces calculated by this method are the same as those by the fixed earth support method, but the
length of the pile calculated by this method approaches to that by free earth support method. So we call the
method as improved fixed earth support method.
Predicting Displacement by Elasto-Plastic Finite Element Method
Methods described above for designing support of excavation can not be used to analyze the displacement
of retaining wall and surroundings. Thus, an elsto-plastic finite element method is employed to predict the
displacements of excavation. After the anchor force and depth of penetration are obtained by each of the
methods, combing with the property data of anchor, wall and soils, which are manually input in a
Table 1: Properties of soils
Type of soil Depth
(m)
Gravity
(kN/m
3
)
Friction
angle(
0
)
Cohesion
(kPa)
Young's
modulus(MN/m
3
)
Poisson's
ratio
Backfill 2.40 15.00 27.00 0.00 4.27 0.3
Free earth support Modification
Project general data Support data Soil properties Properties of anchor and wall
Fixed earth support
Anchor design 1 Anchor design 2
Computing by FEM
Saving data for FEM
Results of displacement
Displacement diagram
End
Improvement
Soft clay 9.30 17.00 27.00 14.00 2.7 0.3
Clay 13.20 19.00 30.00 14.00 8.5 0.3
Silty clay 14.70 19.00 30.00 14.00 13.4 0.3
Stiff clay 30.00 19.00 30.00 14.00 24.0 0.28
database before, a finite element program is performed if a corresponding item on the menu clicked. Here
the visco-plastic model and the Mohr-Coulomb constitutive law are adopted for soils. The simplified
program flowchart is shown in Figure 3. After compare all of the results computing by free earth support,
fixed earth support, modification method and improved fixed earth support method, the best one is selected
for the design.
Table 2: Calculated results
Anchor Force
(kN)
Methods
At
5.00 m
At 9.50
m
Maximum
Bending
moment
(kNm)
Minimum
bending
moment(k
Nm)
Lengt
h of
pile
(m)
Minimum
Displacem
ent (m)
Maximum
Displacem
ent (m)
Factor
of
safety
Fr ee ear t h
support
213.85 305.68 283.82 -655.02 20.18 -0.04436 0.12472 1.4
Fixed earth
support
205.66 272.46 454.8 -448.90 23.16 -0.11094 0.08529 2.9
modification 205.66 269.88 430.26 -439.08 22.71 -0.06718 0.08372 1.8
Improvement 205.66 272.46 454.8 -448.90 20.52 -0.05102 0.09490 1.9
EXAMPLE
This is a practical example to design an anchored
sheet pile wall for excavation. Table 1 shows input
data of soil properties. The depth of excavation is 16
m, with two anchors at depth 5 m and 9.5 m. Table 2
exhibits results calculated by different methods.
Figure 3 is a comparison of displacements of the pile.
From these results, we can find the improved fixed
earth support is the best method, for the length of the
pile is shorter than that by the fixed earth support and
modification method. The value of displacement is
less than that by the free earth support; the factor of
safety is higher than that by the free earth support and
modification method but not too high as that by the
fixed earth support method.
CONCLUSIONS
To design the support for excavation by different classical diagram methods and to analyze the
displacement by elasto-plastic FEM for each of them, so called the comprehensive method, can get more
information about the design. After comparison a good design can be selected. The calculated results of the
example indicate that the improved fixed earth support method is better than other methods for the design.
REFERENCES
Briaud J.(1998), "Beam-column method for tieback walls", Journal of Geotechnics and Geoenvironment
Engineering, USA, (67)
Das, B.(1984),"Principles of Foundation Engineering", Brooks/Cole Engineering Division
Tang, Y.(1999) "Problem Analysis and Failure handling in excavation projects", Chinese Construction
Figure 4: Displacements calculated by different
methods
Industry Press House, Beijing
Yao, A.(1998) "A new computer algorithm for designing anchored sheet pile wall", Proceedings of 6
th
National Conference on Numerical Analysis and Analytic Method in Geomechanics, Guangzhou China,
Aug. 1998, Lu, y. et al, pp. 380-383
Yao, A.(1999), "Development of computer package for analyzing stresses and displacements of deep
excavations ", Geological Science and Technology Information, vol.18, sup., pp41-44