Seepage failure by heave in sheeted excavation pits constructed in stratified cohesionless soils

doi:10.1007/s11709-019-0565-z

Front. Struct. Civ. Eng.

2019, Vol. 13

Issue (6) : 1415-1431 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-019-0565-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Seepage failure by heave in sheeted excavation pits constructed in stratified cohesionless soils

Serdar KOLTUK¹(

), Jie SONG², Recep IYISAN³, Rafig AZZAM²

¹. HPC AG, Stuttgart 70597,Germany
². Department of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen D-52064, Germany
³. Civil Engineering Faculty, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul 34646, Turkey

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Abstract

In this study, experimental and numerical investigations are performed to clarify the seepage failure by heave in sheeted excavation pits in stratified cohesionless soils in which a relatively permeable soil layer (k_upper) lies above a less permeable soil layer (k_lower) between excavation base and wall tip. It is shown that the evaluation of base stabilities of excavation pits against seepage failure by using Terzaghi and Peck’s approach leads to considerably lower critical potential differences than those obtained from the model tests. On the other hand, a relatively good agreement is achieved between the results of the model tests and the finite element (FE) analyses. Further investigations are performed by using axisymmetric excavation models with various dimensions and ground conditions, and a comparison between the results obtained from Terzaghi and Peck’s approach and finite element analyses is given.

Keywords seepage failure by heave cohesionless stratified soil model test Terzaghi and Peck’s approach FE analysis

Corresponding Author(s): Serdar KOLTUK

Just Accepted Date: 24 July 2019 Online First Date: 29 September 2019 Issue Date: 21 November 2019

Cite this article:

Serdar KOLTUK,Jie SONG,Recep IYISAN, et al. Seepage failure by heave in sheeted excavation pits constructed in stratified cohesionless soils[J]. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng., 2019, 13(6): 1415-1431.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/10.1007/s11709-019-0565-z
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/Y2019/V13/I6/1415

Fig.1 Heave zones lifted by pore water pressure in cohesionless soils according to Terzaghi and Peck: (a) homogeneous soil; (b) upper layer is less permeable than lower layer (k_upper<k_lower); (c) lower layer is less permeable than upper layer (k_lower<k_upper).

Fig.2 Test apparatus.

Fig.3 Grain-size distribution curves of the test soils.

Tab.1 Physical properties of the test soils

Tab.2 Test configurations and the corresponding potential differences in the limit state

Fig.4 Determination of ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck} for Test No. 10: (a) Dimensions of the test box and the test soils with developing potential loss; (b) theoretically determined average hydraulic head at the bottom of the failure zone of Terzaghi and Peck for ΔH = 1 cm.

Fig.5 Development of seepage failure by heave in Test No. 10: (a) ΔH <ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck};(b) ΔH = ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck}; (c) ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck}<ΔH <ΔH_{collapse (exp)}; (d) total collapse, ΔH = ΔH_{collapse (exp).}

Fig.6 Numerical simulation of the performed model tests with an embedment depth of 7.5 cm.

Fig.7 Effect of mesh density on the critical potential difference.

Fig.8 Effect of mesh density on the failure zone. (a) very coarse; (b) coarse; (c) medium; (d) fine; (e) very fine; (f) local refinement.

Tab.3 Results of the finite element analyses and their comparison with experimental results

Fig.9 Numerical simulation of Test No. 10: (a) deformed mesh in the numerical limit state; (b) failure zone.

Fig.10 Relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pit: (a) three-dimensional model; (b) equivalent axisymmetric model with dimensions.

Fig.11 Axisymmetric finite element model for the relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pit.

Fig.12 Effect of D on the critical potential diffences obtained from (a) the numerical analyses, (b) the approach of Terzaghi and Peck, (c) the model tests of Marsland (modified from Marsland [3]).

Fig.13 Ratios of ΔH_collapse_?_(num)_?/ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck} depending on D/(D+d) and k_upper/k_lower for the relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pits.

Fig.14 Incremental displacements for the relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pit with k_upper_?/k_lower = 10: (a) D/(D+d) = 0; (b) D/(D+d) = 0.125; (c) D/(D+d) = 0.5; (d) D/(D+d) = 0.875.

Fig.15 Effect of φ on ΔH_{collapse (num)}for the relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pit: (a) k_upper/k_lower = 2.5; (b) k_upper/k_lower = 10.

Fig.16 Effect of φ_upper_?/φ_loweron ΔH_{collapse (num)}for the relatively wide circular-shaped excavation pit: (a) k_upper/k_lower = 2.5; (b) k_upper/k_lower = 10.

Fig.17 Relatively narrow axisymmetric numerical model.

Fig.18 Ratios of ΔH_collapse_?_(num)_?/ΔH_{Terzaghi&Peck} depending on D/(D+d) and k_upper/k_lower for the relatively narrow circular-shaped excavation pit.

Fig.19 Incremental displacements for the relatively narrow circular-shaped excavation pit with k_upper_?/k_lower = 10: (a) D/(D+d) = 0; (b) D/(D+d) = 0.125; (c) D/(D+d) = 0.5; (d) D/(D+d) = 0.875.

Fig.20 Relatively narrow circular-shaped excavation pit with D/(D+d) = 0.5 and k_upper_?/k_lower = 10: (a) Incremental displacements; (b) deformed mesh.

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