Analytical Approach of the Arching Dual Effect Describing the Stability of Slurry-Wall Trenches in Cohesionless Soil
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17, Issue 10
Abstract
Stability of slurry trenches is an important issue during the construction of groundwater cutoff and diaphragm walls and, thus, has gradually drawn additional attention. With the aim of controlling the stability and collapse mechanism of slurry walls better, an analytical approach based on interactions between horizontal and vertical arching effects was conducted to estimate the stability factors for general and local stability of a slurry-supported trench panel in cohesionless soils. The results show that arching has certain characteristics that affect soil behavior near the trench, including directions of loading and unloading of soil, variation of active pressure coefficient on the sidewall interface, and a created downward load transfer mechanism. The trench stability depends on two types of safety factors; the first factor prevents sliding collapse (overall stability), and the second factor prevents collapse of the soil interface (local stability) because local interface instability triggers overall trench collapse in cohesionless soil. The solution was compared with field measurements and three-dimensional (3D) finite-element analyses (with the effect of the third dimension), which permitted study of the influence of the arch located in the third direction. The satisfactory correspondence validates this approach and shows that the 3D analytical analysis perfectly describes the phenomenon.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Carlos, E. G. T., and Theodoros, T. (2012). “Simulation of a corner slurry trench failure in clay.” Comput. Geotech., 45, 107–117.
Conti, R., De Sanctis, L., and Viggiani, G. M. B. (2012). “Numerical modelling of installation effects for diaphragm walls in sand.” Acta Geotech., 7(3), 219–237.
Fox, P. J. (2004). “Analytical solutions for stability of slurry trench.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., ), 749–758.
Gourvenec, S. M., and Powrie, W. (1999). “Three-dimensional finite element analysis of diaphragm wall installation.” Géotechnique, 49(6), 801–823.
Han, C., Chen, J., Wang, J., and Xia, X. (2013). “2D and 3D stability analysis of slurry trench in frictional/cohesive soil.” J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. A, 14(2), 94–100.
Lei, G. H., Douglas, R., Ng, S. W. L., and Ng, C. W. W. (1999). “Observed performance of a short diaphragm wall panel.” Géotechnique, 49(5), 681–694.
Lei, G. H., Sun, H. S., and Ng, C. W. W. (2014). “An approximate analytical solution for calculating ground surface settlements due to diaphragm walling.” Comput. Geotech., 61, 108–115.
Li, S. J., Chen, J., and Feng, X. T. (2011). “Analytic solution to soil arching effect and its application based on interaction of slope soil and piles.” Mater. Res. Innovations J., 15(S1).
Mohamed, A. (2015). “Effect of groundwater table rising and slurry reduction during diaphragm wall trenching on stability of adjacent piles.” IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Vol. 26, Institute of Physics, Bristol, U.K, 012012.
Ng, C. W. W., and Yan, R. W. M. (1999). “Three-dimensional modeling of a diaphragm wall construction sequence.” Géotechnique, 49(6), 825–834.
Piaskowski, A., and Kowalewski, Z. (1965). “Applications of thixotropic clay suspensions for stability of vertical sides of deep trenches without strutting.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 526–529.
PLAXIS 3D [Computer software]. Plaxis bv, Delft, Netherlands.
Schanz, T., and Vermeer, P. A. (1998). “On the stiffness of sands.” Géotechnique Pre-failure Deformation Behaviour of Geomaterials, Vol. 48, Thomas Telford, London. 383–387.
Tsai, J. S. (1997). “Stability of weak sublayers in a slurry supported trench.” Can. Geotech. J., 34(2), 189–196.
Tsai, J. S., and Chang, J. C. (1996). “Three-dimensional stability analysis for slurry-filled trench wall in cohesionless soil.” Can. Geotech. J., 33(5).
Xiao, F. J., Shu, T. L., and Xiao, J. Z. (2015). “Stability of three-dimensional slurry trenches with inclined ground surface: A theoretical study.” Adv. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2015, 362160.
Yonggang, X., Zilong, W., Guannan, Z., and Yuyong, S. (2011). “Analysis of stability of slurry trench sides of diaphragm wall based on construction parameters.” Chin. J. Rock Mech. Eng., 30(2), 3464–3470.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17 • Issue 10 • October 2017
Copyright
© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 16, 2016
Accepted: Mar 29, 2017
Published online: Jul 19, 2017
Published in print: Oct 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Dec 19, 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.