Why Excavation of a Small Air Shaft Caused Excessively Large Displacements: Forensic Investigation
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31, Issue 2
Abstract
Any deficiency in excavation design or construction could lead to excessively large retaining wall and ground displacements, usually accompanied by damage to adjacent structures or facilities. This paper documents a case history of a small air shaft excavation in Shanghai soft clay. Its maximum lateral wall displacement and ground settlement were twice and three times the local deformation control criteria and 3 and 14 times those of one adjacent air shaft excavation featuring similar subsurface conditions, geometric size, and supporting system. To identify probable causes pertaining to its poor performance, a comprehensive investigation was carried out in both design (propping element, supporting system stiffness, wall penetration ratio, and jet grouting of basal soils) and construction (excavation duration, excavation width, exposed wall length, and management of heavy-duty truck and stockpile of construction materials). The investigations show that there were several major contributory factors, among them were adoption of cast concrete struts at deep excavation level, removal of underlying jet-grouted soil layer before fully curing of concrete strut, and passing over of trucks and stockpiling of construction materials nearby. On the basis of the analysis of its field instrumentation data and comparison with the adjacent air shaft excavation and another four subway station excavations, adverse effects of the identified contributory factors were quantified, valuable lessons were learned, and graphical solutions for estimating effects of excavation width and exposed wall length on lateral wall displacement and predicting diaphragm walling-induced ground settlement were derived.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The financial support from the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program: 2015CB057800) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (16ZR1411900) is gratefully acknowledged. The insightful comments from the reviewers and editor are sincerely appreciated.
References
Addenbrooke, T. I., Potts, D. M., and Dabee, B. (2000). “Displacement flexibility number for multipropped retaining wall design.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 718–726.
Beben, D. (2013). “Field performance of corrugated steel plate road culvert under normal live-load conditions.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 807–817.
Bryson, L., and Zapata-Medina, D. (2012). “Method for estimating system stiffness for excavation support walls.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1104–1115.
Bryson, L. S., and Kotheimer, M. J. (2011). “Cracking in walls of a building adjacent to a deep excavation.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 491–503.
Chen, R., Li, Z., Chen, Y., Ou, C., Hu, Q., and Rao, M. (2015). “Failure investigation at a collapsed deep excavation in very sensitive organic soft clay.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Clough, G. W., and O’Rourke, T. D. (1990). “Construction induced movements of in-situ walls.”, ASCE, Reston, VA, 439–470.
Clough, G. W., Smith, E. M., and Sweeney, B. P. (1989). “Movement control of excavation support system by iterative design.” Proc., Foundation Engineering: Current Principals and Practices, Vol. 2, ASCE, Reston, VA, 869–884.
Han, J., Zhou, H. T., and Ye, F. (2002). “State of practice review of deep soil mixing techniques in China.” J. Transp. Res., 1808(1), 49–57.
Hashash, Y. M. A., Osouli, A., and Marulanda, C. (2008). “Central artery/tunnel project excavation induced ground deformations.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1399–1406.
Hsieh, P. G., and Ou, C. Y. (1998). “Shape of ground surface settlement profiles caused by excavation.” Can. Geotech. J., 35(6), 1004–1017.
Liao, S., Wei, S., and Shen, S. (2015). “Structural responses of existing metro stations to adjacent deep excavations in Suzhou, China.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Liu, J. H. (1999). “Time-space-effect theory and practice for excavations in soft clays.” Chin. J. Rock Mech. Eng., 18(1), 763–770 (in Chinese).
Mana, A. I., and Clough, G. W. (1981). “Prediction of movements for braced cuts in clay.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 107(6), 759–777.
Ou, C. Y. (2006). Deep excavation: Theory and practice, Taylor & Francis Group, London.
Poh, T., Goh, A., and Wong, I. (2001). “Ground movements associated with wall construction: Case histories.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1061–1069.
Poh, T., and Wong, I. (1998). “Effects of construction of diaphragm wall panels on adjacent ground: Field trial.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 749–756.
Powrie, W., and Kantartzi, C. (1996). “Ground response during diaphragm wall installation in clay: Centrifuge model tests.” Géotechnique, 46(4), 725–739.
Sezen, H., Yeau, K., and Fox, P. (2008). “In-situ load testing of corrugated steel pipe-arch culverts.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 245–252.
Shanghai Municipal Engineering Authority. (2000). “Specification for excavation in Shanghai metro construction.”, Shanghai, China (in Chinese).
Shen, S., Wang, Z., Yang, J., and Ho, C. (2013). “Generalized approach for prediction of jet grout column diameter.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 2060–2069.
Shen, S. L., Wang, J. P., Wu, H. N., Xu, Y. S., Ye, G. L., and Yin, Z. Y. (2015). “Evaluation of hydraulic conductivity for both marine and deltaic deposit based on piezocone test.” Ocean Eng., 110, 174–182.
Shi, J., Liu, G., Huang, P., and Ng, C. N. N. (2015). “Interaction between a large-scale triangular excavation and adjacent structures in Shanghai soft clay.” Tunnelling Underground Space Technol., 50, 282–295.
Tan, Y., Huang, R., Kang, Z., and Bin, W. (2016). “Covered semi-top-down excavation of subway station surrounded by closely spaced buildings in downtown Shanghai: Building response.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Tan, Y., Li, X., Kang, Z., Liu, J., and Zhu, Y. (2015a). “Zoned excavation of an oversized pit close to an existing metro line in stiff clay: Case study.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Tan, Y., Lu, Y., and Peng, F. (2010). “Semiempirical approach for estimation of DDC-induced deflections of sheet pile walls in peat.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 87–95.
Tan, Y., and Wang, D. (2013a). “Characteristics of a large-scale deep foundation pit excavated by the central-island technique in Shanghai soft clay. I: Bottom-up construction of the central cylindrical shaft.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1875–1893.
Tan, Y., and Wang, D. (2013b). “Characteristics of a large-scale deep foundation pit excavated by the central-island technique in Shanghai soft clay. II: Top-down construction of the peripheral rectangular pit.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1894–1910.
Tan, Y., and Wei, B. (2012). “Performance of an overexcavated metro station and facilities nearby.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 241–254.
Tan, Y., Wei, B., Diao, Y., and Zhou, X. (2014). “Spatial corner effects of long and narrow multipropped deep excavations in Shanghai soft clay.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Tan, Y., Wei, B., Zhou, X., and Diao, Y. (2015b). “Lessons learned from construction of Shanghai metro stations: Importance of quick excavation, prompt propping, timely casting and segmented construction.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Terzaghi, K., and Peck, R. B. (1967). Soil mechanics in engineering practice, 2nd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Wu, Y. X., Shen, S. L., Wu, H. N., Xu, Y. S., Yin, Z. Y, and Sun, W. J. (2015). “Environmental protection using dewatering technology in a deep confined aquifer beneath a shallow aquifer.” Eng. Geol., 196, 59–70.
Xu, C., Chen, Q., Wang, Y., Hu, W., and Fang, T. (2015). “Dynamic deformation control of retaining structures of a deep excavation.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., .
Xu, C. J., Xu, Y. L., Lin, H. H., and Sun, F. M. (2013). “Influences of vehicle loads on braced excavation in soft clay.” Appl. Mech. Mater., 353–356, 146–151.
Yeau, K., Sezen, H., and Fox, P. (2009). “Load performance of in situ corrugated steel highway culverts.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 32–39.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31 • Issue 2 • April 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 22, 2016
Accepted: Jun 3, 2016
Published online: Jul 19, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 19, 2016
Published in print: Apr 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.