Nonlinear Finite-Element Prediction of the Performance of a Deep Excavation in Boston Blue Clay
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 5
Abstract
The work investigates the behavior of a deep excavation which forms part of a 100 m wide basement excavation located in Boston, Massachusetts. Two different types of tied-back retaining walls were used, i.e., a soldier pile tremie concrete wall and a traditional reinforced concrete diaphragm wall. The glacial marine clay (Boston Blue Clay) deposit was modeled with the Kinematic Hardening Model for Structured soils (KHSM), its reduced bubble model version (KHM) and the well-known Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model. The difference between the models is the prediction of softening with loss of structure as plastic strains occur. The values of the optimised soil parameters used in the simulations were obtained by a careful calibration of the models against a range of advanced laboratory and field tests performed at the site. Comparison of the available horizontal wall movements monitoring data with the undrained finite-element predictions revealed a very satisfactory agreement when the KHM was used in conjunction with a small-strain elastic formulation. The relatively small increase in lateral wall deflection in the presence of initial structure accounted for in the KHSM confirms that the small-strain properties of the soil control the magnitude of excavation deformations. Finally, using a coupled-consolidation analysis and the KHSM, an excellent agreement between the observed and measured pore water pressures and ground movements of the excavation base was achieved.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The third author would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by EPSRC and Buro Happold Ltd during his doctoral program. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
References
Addenbrooke, T. I., Potts, D. M., and Puzrin, A. M. (1997). “Influence of pre-failure soil stiffness on the numerical analysis of tunnel construction.” Géotechnique, 47(3), 693–712.
Berman, D. R., Germaine, J. T., and Ladd, C. C. (1993). “Characterization of engineering properties of Boston Blue clay for the MIT campus.”, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Burland, J. B. (1990). “On the compressibility and shear strength of natural clays.” Géotechnique, 40(3), 329–378.
Burland, J. B., and Hancock, R. J. R. (1977). “Underground car park at the house of commons, London.” Struct. Eng., 55(2), 87–100.
Buro Happold. (2007). “Harvard Allston Science Complex.”, Buro Happold, Bath, U.K.
Chang, C. Y., and Duncan, J. M. (1970). “Analysis of soil movement around a deep excavation.” Proc. ASCE, 96(SM5), 1655–1970.
Chartier, M., Nikolic, A., Fasano, A., and Sun, R. Y. F. (2010). “Observed performance of two anchored retaining wall systems for an excavation in Boston.” Proc., Int. Geotechnical Conf., Vol. 2, Geotechnical Challenges in Megacities, Moscow, 585–592.
Clough, G. W., and O’Rourke, T. D. (1990). “Construction induced movements of in situ walls.” Proc., Conf. on Design and Performance of Earth Retaining Structures, Vol. 15, ASCE, Reston, VA, 439–470.
Cotecchia, F., and Chandler, R. J. (2000). “A general framework for the mechanical behaviour of clay.” Géotechnique, 50(4), 431–447.
Elia, G., and Rouainia, M. (2013). “Seismic performance of earth embankment using simple and advanced numerical approaches.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 1115–1129.
Elia, G., and Rouainia, M. (2014). “Performance evaluation of a shallow foundation built on structured clays under seismic loading.” Bull. Earthquake Eng., 12(4), 1537–1561.
Fayad, P. (1986). “Aspects of the volumetric and undrained shear behavior of Boston Blue Clay.” M.S. thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Gonzáles, N. A., Rouainia, M., Arroyo, M., and Gens, A. (2012). “Analysis of tunnel excavation in London clay incorporating soil structure.” Géotechnique, 62(12), 1095–1109.
Hashash, Y. M. A., and Whittle, A. J. (1996). “Ground movement prediction for deep excavations in soft clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 474–486.
Kung, G. T. C., Ou, C. Y., and Juang, C. H. (2009). “Modelling small-strain behaviour of Taipei clays for finite element analysis of braced excavations.” Comput. Geotech., 36(1-2), 304–319.
Ladd, C. C., and Varallyay, J. (1965). “Influence of stress system on the behaviour of saturated clays during undrained shear.”, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Ladd, C. C., Young, G. A., Kramer, S. A., and Burke, D. M. (1999). “Engineering properties of Boston blue clay from special testing program.” Proc. ASCE Geo-Congress, GSP(91), 1–24.
Long, M. (2001). “Database for retaining wall and ground movements due to deep excavations.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 203–224.
Nikolic, A., Fasano, A., and Cook, J. (2010). “Undrained shear strength evaluation for natural Boston blue clay.” Proc., 11th DFI/EFFC Int. Conf. on Geotechnical Challenges in Urban Regeneration, London.
Nikolinakou, M. A., Whittle, A. J., Savidis, S., and Schran, U. (2011). “Prediction and interpretation of the performance of a deep excavation in Berlin sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 1047–1061.
O’Rourke, T. D., and O’Donnell, C. J. (1997). “Field behavior of excavation stabilized by deep soil mixing.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 516–524.
Panayides, S., Rouainia, M., and Muir Wood, D. (2012). “Influence of degradation of structure on the behaviour of a full-scale embankment.” Can. Geotech. J., 49(3), 344–356.
Peck, R. B. (1969). “Deep excavations and tunnelling in soft ground.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics, Sociedad Mexicana de Mecanica de Suelos, Mexico City, 225–290.
PLAXIS 2D. (2012). Reference manual, Plaxis BV, Delft, Netherlands.
Powrie, W., and Batten, M. (2000). “Comparison of measured and calculated temporary proploads at Canada water station.” Géotechnique, 50(2), 127–140.
Puller, M. (2003). Deep excavations: A practical manual, 2nd Ed., Thomas Telford, London.
Rouainia, M., and Muir Wood, D. (2000). “A kinematic hardening model for natural clays with loss of structure.” Géotechnique, 50(2), 153–164.
Santagata, M. C. (1998). “Factors affecting the initial stiffness and the stiffness degradation behavior of cohesive soils.” Ph.D. thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Santagata, M. C., and Germaine, J. T. (2002). “Sampling disturbance effects in normally consolidated clays.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 997–1006.
Santagata, M. C., Germaine, J. T., and Ladd, C. C. (2005). “Factors affecting the initial stiffness of cohesive soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 430–441.
Sheahan, T. C. (1991). “An experimental study of the time-dependent undrained shear behavior of resedimented clay using automated stress path triaxial equipment.” D.Sc. thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Simpson, B., O’Riordan, N. J., and Croft, D. D. (1979). “A computer model for the analysis of ground movements in London Clay.” Géotechnique, 29(2), 149–175.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R. B., Mesri, G. (1996). Soil mechanics in engineering practice, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Viggiani, G., and Atkinson, J. H. (1995). “Stiffness of fine-grained soils at very small strains.” Géotechnique, 45(2), 249–265.
Whittle, A. J., Corral, G., Jen, L. C., and Rawnsley, R. P. (2015). “Prediction and performance of deep excavations for Courthouse Station, Boston.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., .
Whittle, A. J., Hashash, Y. M. A., and Whitman, R. V. (1993). “Analysis of deep excavation in Boston.” J. Geotech. Eng., 69–90.
Zdravkovic, L., Potts, D. M., St John, H. D. (2005). “Modelling of a 3D excavation in finite element analysis.” Géotechnique, 55(7), 497–513.
Zhao, J., Sheng, D., Rouainia, M., and Sloan, S. W. (2005). “Explicit stress integration of complex soil models.” Int. J. Num. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 29,(12), 1209–1229.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 13, 2015
Accepted: Sep 20, 2016
Published online: Feb 1, 2017
Published in print: May 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 1, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.