DTU Byg Section of Geotechnics and Geology

PROJECT : Design of a deep excavation in urban environment

Purpose
To be able to design a retaining wall for a deep excavation
To apply stress deformation analysis methods
To select and design adequate support measures for the retaining wall
To estimate and predict the settlements on the ground surface
To assess building damage due to induced settlements

Retaining wall design
As a part of the construction works for the metro project in a densely populated city, several stations
are being built and the tunnel alignment meets variable geotechnical conditions. As design
engineers, you have been given a typical soil profile at the location of one of the stations and you are
asked to design a temporary deep excavation where the station is being built. The stations have a
rectangular box shape of 20m width and 100m length, and dry conditions inside the excavation pit
should be ensured. The safety of the adjacent buildings in 5m distance from the retaining wall
should be ensured. The three storey masonry building is 15m wide and 12m tall and the total load is
54kPa or the weight of the equivalent beam is 54kN/m/m.
The purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate the application of simplified design methods in
conjunction with numerical modelling in relevant soil structure interaction problems.

Figure 1. Soil Profile and deep excavation geometry.




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DTU Byg Section of Geotechnics and Geology
Ground conditions
Investigations for the extension of a metro system in the centre of Copenhagen have been carried
out. The soil may be grouped in 5 types: fill, clay till, meltwater sand/gravel, weathered limestone,
and competent limestone. Figure 1 shows a standard profile including definition of layer thickness
(H1-H4), excavation depth (H) and variable soil parameters (,c,E).
Across the different sites the following soil types have been located. Laboratory tests have been
carried out the derived material parameters are listed in Table 1.

Fill Clay till
Meltwater
sand/gravel
Limestone
(weathered)
Limestone
(competent)
Layer No. 1 2 3 4 5
Unit weight,
d
/
w
[kN/m
3
] 15/17 20/22 18/20 21/22 22/23
Friction angle,
tr
27-30 34 35-38 41-45 45
Effective cohesion, c [kPa] 0 5-10 0 50 100-200
Youngs modulus, E [MPa] 20-30 85-100 40-60 500-800 2000
Poissons ratio, 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.3 0.3
K
0
0.55 1 0.42 0.4 0.5
Permeability, k
x
/k
y
[m/s] 10
-4
210
-5
10
-4
210
.5
/210
-6
10
-5
/10
-6

Table 1: Range of characteristic soil properties (drained conditions).

The ground profiles and position of the ground water table, z
w
, depend on the specific location and
will be defined for each group. Furthermore, each group will get specific values for parameters
marked with red in Table 1.
The remaining input will be listed in an excel-spreadsheet, which can be downloaded from
Campusnet.

Retaining wall and support measures
As design engineers you are asked to:
a) Decide the excavation method and the retaining wall type
b) Proceed with the preliminary design (stability analysis) and calculate an initial embedment
depth of the wall
c) Estimate the necessity of additional support measures and decide what kind of support
measures you are applying
d) Perform the final design analysis using FEM, and verify against both geotechnical and
structural failure modes.

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DTU Byg Section of Geotechnics and Geology
e) Use empirical models to predict surface settlements and compare the result to the
prediction from the FEM model.
f) Assess the building performance to the induced settlements
Reporting
The report should be submitted via Campusnet as group hand in and one single pdf-file not
exceeding 30 pages (including appendices) - electronical enclosures will not be accepted. Your report
should include the following information:
1. Basis for design and preliminary design. Calculations documenting your design (tip length,
max bending moment, distribution of support forces) and a sketch of your design proposal
illustrating the adopted solution should be included
2. PLAXIS finite element modelling - A short description of the assumptions for the numerical
model and of the construction stages with a plot of deformed mesh at each stage.
3. For the final design the documentation includes:
a. Sketch of earth pressure distributions on both sides of the wall.
b. Plots of stress distributions (effective principle stresses and active pore pressure)
c. Bending moment distribution in wall
d. Structural verification of the wall and the support measures
4. Settlement predictions and plot of surface settlement profile from PLAXIS
5. Assessment of building damage in terms of advanced criteria for damage assessment
6. Conclusions

The report shall be written in English and there should be a clear indication of the contribution of
each one of the group members as either of:
Specification of sections/pages that each student is responsible for (pages)
Specification of individual contributions to work process (descriptive)
*Hand in date: 05-05-2014

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