| dc.description.abstract | Analyses on the behavior of diaphragm wall
for Small and medium size excavations
Abstract
Diaphragm wall is often used as part of the temporary retaining system as well as the permanent structural wall in today’s basement excavation. In order to maintain the safety of excavation, staged excavation with the use of horizontal bracing system is adopted in most cases.
The current diaphragm wall design approach does not take the three dimensional effect into account, cases sites are considered to behave in a plane strain pattern. As for small or medium size construction sites, the behavior of diaphragm wall is significantly affected by three dimensional effect, resulting in smaller wall displacement as predicted by the plane strain model. In other words, the current design approach yields conservative diaphragm wall design. Wall thickness, depth, reinforcement, buttress wall, etc., are more than actually required, leading to unnecessary waste of resources.
This study compares the analytical results with field measurements to delineate the three dimensional effects that affect the field behavior of diaphragm wall. In essence, the side walls perpendicular to the main diaphragm wall are also regarded as buttress walls in modeling the three dimensional effects, and a half width of the site is considered as the effective length of the buttress wall.
Key words: Plane strain, three dimensional effect, Diaphragm wall, buttress wall
| en_US |