Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

Available at http://www.joics.com

March 1, 2014

Analytical Solution for Pile Response Due to

Excavation-induced Lateral Soil Movement
Aijun Zhang a,b,,
a School

Haihong Mo a

of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology

Guangzhou 510641, China

b College

of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China

Abstract
The excavation of foundation pits in building compact district of urban will inevitably bring about
the lateral movement of the soil mass surrounding foundation pits to a certain excent, which may
generate the additional deections and bending moments in the adjacent pile shaft, and may lead to
their superstructures distress, even failure. In view of the drawbacks of existing numerical method,
such as complex modeling and time-consuming, the Two-stage Analysis Method (TSM) is presented to
determine the behavior of adjacent pile caused by foundation pit excavation based on Winkler model in
this paper. Firstly, the additional lateral displacement distribution of soil mass due to the excavation of
adjacent foundation pit and displacement of retaining wall structure is calculated by the virtual image
technique. Secondly, the interaction of adjacent pile with the surrounding soil mass is achieved by
setting the Winkler spring. Thus, the governing dierential equations are built up based on Winkler
model and their analytical solution of matrix is derived to analysis the impact of excavation on adjacent
pile. Finally, the study of case histories shows that the calculated results of analytical solution are
reasonable and the present approach procedure could be used to analyze the inuence of excavation on
adjacent pile foundations. Generally, it has the very good guidance on the inuence of foundation pits
excavation on adjacent pile.
Keywords: Excavation; Elastic Foundation Beam; Pile-soil Interaction; Analytical Solution; Two-stage
Analysis Method; Free-eld Soil Displacement

Introduction

Due to the intensely utilization of underground space, the foundation pits tend to become large
and deep. The phenomenon will inevitably bring about the movement of the soil mass surrounding
foundation pits to a certain excent, further which have terrible impacts on the pile foundation
of adjacent structures, especially the subway tunnels and stations or pile foundation of bridges.
Thus, the environmental protection and safety problems of foundation pit become an outstanding
issue increasingly. For example, a deep foundation pit nearby a subway in Taipei was excavated,
which caused the line tunnel damages and great economic losses [1]. In Singapore, a subway

Corresponding author.
Email address: zhangaijun@qq.com (Aijun Zhang).

15487741 / Copyright 2014 Binary Information Press

DOI: 10.12733/jics20102966

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foundation pit collapsed near a highway, which caused the highway main road supported by pile
foundation to collapse as well as casualty accidents [2]. Therefore, it is practical signicance to
study the displacement and stress behavior of adjacent piles supporting very important structures
during the excavating of foundation pits.
Domestic and foreign scholars of geotechnical engineering had studied the topic of the retaining
structure deformation and its inuence on adjacent facilities and building. H. Poulos and L. T.
Chen (1997) [3] applied the coupling method of nite element and boundary element to study the
impacts of soil lateral movement arising from the foundation pit excavation on the neighboring
pile foundation, meanwhile analyzed the various inuencing factors to prepare the design charts,
which had high reference value when the case that absence of detailed site engineering data. C.
Wang et al. (2010) [4] used the nite dierence method to analyze the impacts of foundation pit
excavation on the adjacent bridge piles. M. Yang et al. (2005) [5] and G. Zheng et al. (2007) [6]
adopted the three-dimensional nite element method to analyze the impacts of pile foundation
stiness, the distance of foundation pit to adjacent piles, vertical loads of pile foundation top and
constraint conditions on the additional bending moment and displacement of adjacent piles, and
carried out the impact evaluation analysis.
Because the issue is related to the interaction of three parts, that is the foundation pit, soil
and adjacent pile, it is relatively dicult to solve via analytical method. Therefore, the above
mentioned scholars mainly adopted numerical methods, such as nite element or nite dierence,
to study this issue. The numerical methods deem the surrounding soil, the foundation pit and
adjacent pile as a whole during simulating the foundation pit excavation. This makes it possible to
simulate the complex interactions between the foundation pit and soil, the foundation construction
process as well as the elastic and plastic behavior of the soil. Yet, its accuracy depends largely on
the soil constitutive model and its parameter selection [4-6]. Besides, due to the large workload
of the numerical method, its calculation process often relies on the professional software, which is
complex to operate. Thus, the popularity and application of itself are greatly limited in the eld
of engineering design.
In view of the drawbacks of existing numerical simulation method, such as complex modeling
and time-consuming, this paper proposed the matrix expression of subgrade reaction method to
analysis the force and deformation of adjacent pile due to foundation pit excavation based on
the Two-stage Analysis Method (TSM) and Winkler foundation beam. The basic idea of this
method is as following. Firstly, the additional lateral displacement or stress distribution of soil
mass due to the excavation of adjacent foundation pit and displacement of retaining structure
is calculated by the virtual image technique. Secondly, the interaction of adjacent pile, which is
deemed as a one-dimensional truss structure, with the surrounding soil mass is achieved by setting
the Winkler spring. The lateral displacement or stress distribution obtained in the rst step is
known conditions herein. Thus the governing dierential equations are built up based on Winkler
model and their analytical solution of matrix is derived to analysis the impact of excavation on
adjacent pile.

2
2.1

Two-stage Analysis Method for Behavior of Adjacent

Piles Due to Excavation
Free-eld Displacement of Soil Mass Due to Excavation

C. Sagaseta (1987) [7] had obtained the strain eld in an homogeneous incompressible soil due to

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1113

near-surface ground loss by means of a virtual image technique and the half-space elastic theory.
Based on Sagasetas method, K. J. Xu and H. Poulos (2000) [8] derived a general explicit equation
to examine the soil movement induced by a soil-cut, such as an excavation, and the displacement
of retaining wall constructed near the adjacent pile. Because of just using two parabolas to t
the displacement curve of continuous wall or retaining pile above excavation envelope, sometimes
the results of K. J. Xu and H. Poulos are far from the actual situation.
In this paper, the horizontal displacement curve of retaining wall structure, which could be
rooted in the eld measured data or calculated numerical results, is tted by a polynomial function
f (), shown by Fig. 1. Then, the horizontal displacement curve is divided into some dierential
sections. On the basis of area equivalent principle, the area corresponding to every dierential
section is round. Finally, free-eld soil lateral displacement expression, shown by Eq. (1), is
obtained through integrating arbitrary points along the entire envelope depth according to the
virtual image technique.
{ (
)
[
]}
L
2f () 1 x
x
x
2z(z + )
S(x, z) =

+ 2 1
d
(1)

2 r12 r22
r2
r22
0

where, r1 = x2 + (z )2 ; r2 = x2 + (z + )2 ; =integration variable; L is the depth of

retaining wall structure, such as continuous wall or retaining pile; z=the depth to the ground
surface.
z
x

Length of pile above

the critical surface, h
Length of pile
blow the critical
surface, Hw

Soil
movement,
s(z)

Differential
section, d
Deformation of
structure, f()

Excavation depth

Deflection
of pile, v

Retaining structure

Fig. 1: Model of imbedded adjacent pile-soil interaction

2.2

Analysis Interaction between Adjacent Pile and Soil

It is need to make the following assumptions for deriving the control equation of pile-soil interaction, which is impacted by the soil lateral displacement due to the excavation of near foundation
pit: (1) Considering soil as isotropic, homogeneous and incompressible body in half innite space;
(2) There is no separation between the pile and the surrounding soil; (3) The presence of pile

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A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

does not aect the excavation of foundation pit; (4) Pile is continuous, elastic, isotropic body;
(5) Considering only the action of horizontal load, ignore the eect of vertical load.
Practically, the adjacent pile is dened as innite beam embedded in elastic foundations subject
to lateral soil movement, s(z), which is a function of depth, z. It assumed that two segments of
pile are above and below the critical failure surface respectively (Fig. 1). Based on the work
of Hetenyi (1946) [9] and Zhang & Mo (2011) [10], the deections of the two pile segments are
governed by the owing dierential equation
d4 v
+ 44 v =
4
dz

{
44 s (h < z 0)

(2)

(H < z h)

where, =the characteristic length of the soil-pile system, = 4 k/4Ep Ip ; k = kh d, kh is horizontal subgrade reaction coecient, kN/m3 ; d=the pile diameter, m; h=the length of pile above
the critical surface, m; Ep =elastic modulus of concrete, kN/m2 ; Ip = eective moment of inertia,
m4 ; v=deection of pile segments, m;H=the total length of pile, m; h=the length of pile above
the critical surface, m.
The following empirical equation developed by A. S. Vesic (1961) [11] who employed elastic
subgrade reaction method to analysis the performance of long pile embedded in elastic soil based
on ineld lateral loading test data, could be used to present a relation for k and Es :

kh =

0.65Es
1 s2

12

Es d4
Ep Ip

(3)

where, vs =Poissons ratio of soil; d=pile diameter, m; Es =modulus of soil, kN/m2 , which represents a secant modulus for relatively low load levels.
The general analytical solution of Eq. (2) can be obtained from according to Hetenyi (1946)
[11].
v = ez (C1 cos z + C2 sin z) + ez (C3 cos z + C4 sin z)
(4)
(1) For the pile segment within the stable layer (H<zh) shown by Fig. 1, its deection is given
by
v1 = ed z (C11 cos d z + C12 sin d z) + ed z (C13 cos d z + C14 sin d z)
(5)

where, d = 4 kd /4EI; kd =the horizontal subgrade reaction coecient of stable layer; v1 =the
deection of pile in stable layer; C11 , C12 , C13 , C14 are integration constants.
(2) For the pile segment subject to lateral soil movement within the sliding layer (h<z0), its
deection is given by
v2 = eu z (C21 cos u z + C22 sin u z) + eu z (C23 cos u z + C24 sin u z) + vn
where, u =

(6)

4
vn is particku /4EI; ku =the subgrade reaction modulus of sliding layer; vn =
n=0

ular solution of Eq. (2) respect to 44 s; v2 =the deection of pile in sliding layer; C21 , C22 , C23 ,
C24 are integration constants.

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A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

2.3

Boundary Conditions and Formula Derivation

There are totally eight constant parameters for Eq. (5) and (6), C11 , C12 , C13 , C14 , C21 , C22 , C23 ,
C24 , which can be determined by the corresponding boundary conditions.
(1) At z H for semi-innite exible pile, the deection of the pile v, the angular deection,
= v , are zero, thus we nd C11 =C12 =0 derived from Eq. (5). Therefore, Eq. (5) could be
retrieved to
v1 = ed z (C13 cos d z + C14 sin d z)

(7)

At z 0, the bending moment M = EIv , the shearing force Q = EIv , are zero, so
Eq. (6) can be rewritten as followings
[
]
22u eu h (C21 sin u h C22 cos u h) + eu h (C23 sin u h C24 cos u h) +
[( + ) ]

vn
=0
(8a)
n=0

x=h

23u eu h [C21 (cos u h + sin u h) C22 (cos u h sin u h)] +

eu h [C23 (cos u h sin u h) + C24 (cos u h + sin u h)]

}
+

[( +

) ]
vn

=0

n=0

(8b)

x=h

(2) Considering continuous boundary condition, the deection v, the angular deection , the
bending moment M and the shearing force Q of the pile are continuous at the critical surface,
z h. We nd the following equations for pile segments within stable layer according to Eq. (7),
v1h = ed h (C13 cos d h + C14 sin d h)

(9a)

v1h
= d ed h [C13 (cos d h + sin d h) C14 (cos d h sin d h)]

(9b)

v1h
= 22d ed h (C13 sin d h C14 cos d h)

(9c)

v1h

(9d)

23d ed h

[C13 (cos d h sin d h) + C14 (cos d h + sin d h)]

The solution for pile segments within sliding layer was found according to Eq. (6),
[ + ]

v2h = eu h (C21 cos u h + C22 sin u h) + eu h (C23 cos u h + C24 sin u h) +

vn

v2h

n=0
u h

= u e

[C21 (cos u h sin u h) + C22 (cos u h + sin u h)]

}
eu h [C23 (cos u h + sin u h) C24 (cos u h sin u h)] +

[( +

x=h

) ]
vn

n=0

v2h

(10a)

(10b)

[ u h
]
=
e (C21 sin u h C22 cos u h) + eu h (C23 sin u h C24 cos u h)
[( + ) ]

+
vn

x=h

22u

n=0

(10c)

x=h

= 23u eu h [C21 (cos u h + sin u h) C22 (cos u h sin u h)]

v2h
}
+eu h [C23 (cos u h sin u h) + C24 (cos u h + sin u h)] +

[( +

n=0

) ]
vn

(10d)
x=h

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A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

Considering continuous boundary conditions mentioned above, v1h = v2h , v1h

= v2h
, v1h
= v2h
,

= v2h , and Eq. (8), respectively, the solutions of the other six integration constants can be
written in the matrix form,
A66 C61 = V61
(11)

v1h

By solve above linear equation, the solution of integration constants are got by Eq. (12),
C61 = A1
66 V61

(12)

where
A=

N Ecd (h)

[N Ed (h)+N Ed (h)]
s
d c

2
d

2d N Es (h)

3 d
2d [N Ec (h)N Esd (h)]

Ecu (h)

N Esd (h)

d (h)N E d (h)
d N E c
s

u (h)E u (h) E u (h)+E u (h)

u [Ec
]
]
u[ c
s
s

22d N Ecd (h)

22u N Esu (h)

d
d
23
d N Ec (h)+N Es (h)

u
u
23
u [Ec (h)+Es (h)]

u
u
23
u [Ec (h)Es (h)]

u
u
23
u [N Ec (h)N Es (h)]

22u Esu (h)

22u Ecu (h)

22u N Esu (h)

N Esu (h)

2
u

2u N Ec (h)

3
u
u
2u [N Ec (h)+N Es (h)]

22u N Ecu (h)

u (h)N E u (h)
u [N Ec
]
s

u
u
3
u
u
3
u
u
3
u
u
23
u [Ec (h)+Es (h)] 2u [Ec (h)Es (h)] 2u [N Ec (h)N Es (h)] 2u [N Ec (h)+N Es (h)]

]T
C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

u (h)+N E u (h)
u [N Ec
]
s

22u Ecu (h)

V =

N Ecu (h)

22u Esu (h)

C=

Esu (h)

V (h) V (h) V (h) V (h) V (0) V (0)

]T

Introducing into Eq. (12), the symbols Esi (z), Eci (z), N Esi (z), N Eci (z) and V (z). where,
= ei z sin(i z), Eci (z) = ei z cos(i z), N Esi (z) = ei z sin(i z), N Eci (z) = ei z cos(i z),
( + )

V (z) =
vn , i = u, d

Esi (z)

n=0

Thus, the integral constants C13 , C14 , C21 , C22 , C23 , C24 were determined by Eq. (12).

2.4

Particular Solution of Four Orders Non-homogeneous Dierential

Equation

It is dicult to solve the four orders non-homogeneous dierential equation, Eq. (2), directly
because of the non-homogeneous item 44 s(z). Theoretically, any distribution prole of lateral
soil movement s(z), such as triangle, trapezoid, uniform or parabola curve, can always be expressed
n

by polynomial equation in closed form s(z) =

ai z i . The particular solution corresponding to
Eq. (2) must be

i=0

bj z j , formally, where, ai and bi are series constants.

j=0

Based on the method of undetermined coecients, the relationship of the series constant ai
and bi can be expressed as following:

A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

1117

For n 4 < i n :
bi = ai

(13)

and for i n 4:
k

bi = ai +
(1)j
j=1

(i + 4j)!
ai+4j
(i)!
(44 )j

(i + 4j < n)

(14)

In other words, if the distribution prole of s(z) was given by polynomial spline, the particular
solution of Eq. (2) could be got via the procedure described here.

Case Histories

The above calculation procedure has been coded into Matlab program. The accuracy of the
present solution is veried against the measurement results of two fully instrumented tests reported by Poulos-Chen (1997) [3] and Goh-Wong et al. (2003) [12] with linear or nonlinear Lateral
Soil Movement (LSM) proles respectively.

3.1

Case History 1: Poulos-Chen (1997)

Poulos and Chen (1997) [3] proposed a method, which combined the nite element method with
the boundary element method, to analysis the inuence of the foundation pit excavation on
adjacent pile foundation. The soil is assumed to be an uniform clay, where an existing single pile
is situated near an braced excavations. The basic problem analyzed and the parameters selected
are just as what are shown in Fig. 1, where =unit weight of soil, 20 kN/m3 ; vs =poissons ratio
of soil, 0.5; Es =soil Youngs modulus, 16 MPa; L=length of retaining wall, 13 m; H=length of
adjacent pile, 22 m; d=diameter of adjacent pile, 0.5 m; Ep = pile Youngs modulus, 30 GPa;
x=distance from excavation face for adjacent pile, 1 m.
In this paper, two cases of Poulos-Chen (1997), which have the excavation depth of 6 m and
8 m respectively, were selected to compare with the calculation procedure proposed above. The
horizontal subgrade reaction coecient, kh , is estimated using the Eq. (3). The nite element
calculation results of Poulos-Chen (1997) about the displacement prole of diaphragm wall are
adopted in the present approach method. Then, the Lateral Soil Movements (LSM) at 1 m
distance to the diaphragm wall are calculated by Eq. (1). Finally, the present approach method
is adopted to analysis the response of adjacent pile subjected to lateral soil movement due to
excavation.
Fig. 2 indicates that the deection of pile is compared with the ineld measured data and the
results of Poulos and Chen [3]. Generally, the results of the present method compare favourably
with the eld measurements. The calculated pile deection within the stable layer is consistent
with the measurements. Especially, the deection of pile at the top is very closed to the monitoring
result.

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A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

Depth/m

10

14
Present approach (excavating 8 m)
Present approach (excavating 6 m)
Poulos's method (excavating 8 m)
Poulos's method (excavating 6 m)

18

22
0

10
15
20
25
Deflection of adjacent pile/mm

30

Fig. 2: Comparison of deection of adjacent piles between TSM and poulos method [3]

3.2

Case History 2: Goh-Wong et al. (2003)

An actual full-scale instrumented eld test was described by Goh et al. (2003). The eld test was
performed on a free-head drilled shaft with a diameter of 1.0 m and a total embedment length of
46 m. The pile was located about 3 m behind the cut-and-cover tunnel supporting by diagram
wall. In the current paper, the soil modulus above and under the sliding surface are 10 MPa and
170 MPa, respectively, through equivalent and interpolation method which was recommended by
A. J. Zhang and H. H. Mo (2012) [13]. Limited by the length of this paper, we can refer to the
A. T. C. Goh [12] with other parameters.

16

16
Depth/m

Depth/m

The Lateral Soil Movements (LSM) at 3 m distance to the diaphragm wall was measured
by in-soil inclinometer at Stage A and Stage B, respectively. Then, as described above, any
distribution prole of LSM could always be expressed by polynomial spline in closed-form. Two
polynomial splines, shown in Fig. 3 and marked as SM, were used to t the curves of LSM and

26
Predicted (Stage A)
Measured (Stage A)
SM (Stage B)

36

SM (Stage A)
Predicted (Stage B)
Measured (Stage B)

(a)
46

26

Measured (Stage A)
Measured (Stage B)
Predicted (Stage B)

36

Predicted (Stage A)
(b)

10
15
20
25
30
Deflection and soil movement/mm

35

46
400

200 400 600 800

200
0
Bending moment of adjacent pile/kNm

Fig. 3: Measured and predicted deection and bending moment of adjacent pile

A. Zhang et al. / Journal of Information & Computational Science 11:4 (2014) 11111120

1119

used as inputting soil movements for calculating. The measured and predicted pile deection and
bending moment of proles are shown in Fig. 3. The shape of the predicted deection proles
are in reasonable agreement with that of measured by Goh (2003) for both stage A and stage B.
The magnitude and shape of the predicted and measured pile bending moments are in very good
agreement.

Conclusions

The excavation of foundation pits will inevitably bring about the lateral movement of the soil mass
surrounding foundation pits to a certain excent, which may generate the additional deections
and bending moments in the adjacent pile shaft, and may lead to their superstructures distress,
even failure.
The two-stage analysis method (TSM) is presented to determine the behavior of adjacent pile
caused by foundation pit excavation in this paper, which could avoid the drawbacks of threedimensional numerical analysis, such as complexity modeling and time consuming. Firstly, the
additional lateral displacement of soil mass due to adjacent foundation pit excavation is calculated
by the virtual image technique. Secondly, the governing dierential equations are built up based
on Winkler model and their analytical solution of matrix is derived. Finally, analysis of case
histories shows that the calculated results of analytical solution are reasonable and the present
approach could be used to analyze the inuence of excavation on adjacent pile foundations.
Therefore, it has the very good guidance on the inuence of foundation excavation on adjacent
pile.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]
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