RISKS & UNCERTAINTIES INVOLVED IN DEEP EXCAVATION WORK

AND THEIR PREVENTIVE MEASURES

DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

SUBJECT – UNCERTAINITIES, RISK AND RELIABILITY
IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING “GTE – 5306”
PRESENTED BY:

ANKIT SINGH (2K20/GTE/04)

PRAVESH RAWAT (2K20/GTE/14)
Literature review:
 GEOTECHNICAL AND GEOLOGICAL
ASPECTS
1) Peck (1969): has collected the data from the BART
(B a y A r e a R a p id T r a n s it S y s tem of San francisco)
project of construction of 14 miles of tunnels and six
large subways on soft ground. He showed that
settlements next to the deep excavations depends
upon the soil type. He proposed three zones of
settlement profiles based on soil conditions.
Zone- 1 : Sand and Soft to hard clay
Zone 2: Very soft to soft clay upto limited depth below
bottom of excavation.
Zone 3: very soft to soft clay to significant depth bleow
bottom of excavation.
In general, larger wall deflection and ground
Fig :Effect of soil type on the settlement induced by deep excavation
deformations are induced due to excavations in soils
with lower strength and stiffness.
2) Bentler (1998) :
• The maximum horizontal wall deflection for excavations
• In sand or hard clays is 0.19% H
• In soft to stiff clays 0.45% H, where H is the depth of excavation.
• The average of the maximum settlement is 0.22% H in sands/hard clays and 0.55% H in soft-
stiff clays.
3)Abdel-Rahman & El-Sayed (2002) ,Abdel-Rahman & El-Sayed (2009):
• The maximum settlement associated with trenching is equal to 0.045% for both shallow and
deep foundations.
• The maximum settlement due to pit excavation is about 0.11% of the excavation depth for
shallow foundations and 0.03% of the maximum depth of excavation for pile foundations
• The extent of the settlement troughs was found to reach up to a distance equivalent to 3.5 of
the depth of excavation in alluvial soils for both shallow and deep foundations.
• Most of the settlement of buildings on pile foundations occurs during the trenching stage.
 4) Hsieh, CY, Ou et al. (1993)
They showed that the settlement model does not
only depend on the soil type but also on the
wall lateral deformations as well.
They presented a tri-linear settlement profile
called spandrel-type settlement based on 10
case histories of deep excavations in soft clays
from Taipei and Taiwan. The maximum
settlement is located at the wall face when the
wall deforms as a cantilever. The settlement
trough is shown in Fig

Fig: Spandrel-type settlement trough

5) Yong et al. (1989):
showed that significant consolidation can take place during the construction of a deep excavation in
clay and that the effects of consolidation are significant. Consolidation and swelling during
excavation result in changes in the shear strength of soils and time-dependent deformations. The
negative water pressure, generated by the excavation at the base, dissipates with time causing loss of
some passive resistance that occurred immediate after excavation. This leads to time dependent
deformations in the wall and the soil behind the wall.
Methodology:
 OBSERVATIONAL METHOD AND MONITORING:
To address uncertainties in geotechnical design and the associated risks, Peck proposed to utilize the
observational approach as an effective tool in the geotechnically related projects. The objective of the
observational method is to achieve greater overall economy without compromising safety.
Peck suggested that design is to be initiated based on the most probable conditions and most
unfavorable conceivable deviations from these conditions and utilizing monitoring as a tool to update
the geotechnical related aspects as the construction proceeds.
Calculating the values of the quantities under the favaourable as well as most unfavourable conditions
compatible with the available data concerning the subsurface conditions.