An Investigation on the Behavior of Retaining Structure of Excavation Wall Using Obtained Result from Numerical Modeling and Monitoring Approach. (A Case Study of International "Narges Razavi 2 Hotel", Mashhad)

Subject Areas : Structural Engineering

Soheil  Ghareh ¹ (Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Payame Noor University, P.O. Box 19395-4697, Tehran, Iran)
Mehdi  Saidi ² (Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University , Zanjan Branch, Zanjan, Iran)

Received: 2011-10-17 Accepted : 2011-11-30 Published : 2012-02-19

Keywords: Retaining Structure, Soil Anchorage, Numerical modeling, FLAC2D Software, PLAXIS2D Software,

Abstract :

With the growing population and density in metropolitan areas, higher tendency to live in high-rise buildings, and increasing demand for parking lots, it seems necessary to excavate soil to construct underground spaces. During excavation work, as the height of the wall increases, special care should be taken to the wall stabilization to avoid any consequent damage including extensive property damage or loss of life. Different methods such as performing steel or concrete pile, sheet piling, reciprocal anchorage, diaphragm wall, soil nailing, and soil anchorage can be utilized to stabilize excavation wall. As all of these methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, it is important to know the limitations and differences of each method. Besides providing more work space in the wall, using novel methods of stabilization may lead to considerable savings in cost and time. By examining the behavior of retaining structure and also predicting the value of wall displacement, resulting from existing loads such as adjacent structures of the wall, service loads, and vehicle live load, a big step can be taken to prevent any probable damage. Currently, due to the development of high speed digital computers, finite element method (FEM) can be applied to predict the behavior of retaining structure. In this paper, as a case study, the behavior of retaining structure of excavation wall of Narges Razavi 2 International Hotel, Mashhad, stabilized using steel pile and soil anchorage, has been investigated. For this purpose, the results obtained from finite difference software, FLAC2D, and finite element software, PLAXIS2D, have been compared with those obtained from the monitoring of excavation wall. It was found that there is a good consistency between the results.