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A novel strut-free retaining wall system for deep excavation in soft clay: numerical study

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel strut-free earth retaining wall system for excavation in soft clay, referred to as the rigid and fixed diaphragm (RFD) wall retaining system. The RFD system is comprised of four main structures—diaphragm walls, rib-walls, cross walls, and buttress walls—and a complementary structure—the cap-slab. The characteristics of the RFD system are: (1) the formation of a continuous earth retaining wall by constructing diaphragm walls along the circumference of the excavated zone; (2) the formation of a rigid and fixed retaining wall system by a series of rib-walls and cross walls; and (3) the formation of a rigid retaining wall by buttress walls and the cap-slab. Furthermore, the performance and mechanisms of the RFD system were investigated carefully through three-dimensional finite element analyses. The results demonstrated that the system stiffness of the RFD system was a major factor controlling deformations induced by excavation. Moreover, the excavation geometry determined the dimension of each component of the RFD system.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan via Grant Numbers: MOST 103-2221-E-011-070-MY3 and MOST 106-2221-E-146-002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 10672, Taiwan

    Aswin Lim & Chang-Yu Ou

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Bandung, 40141, Indonesia

    Aswin Lim

  3. Department of Assets and Property Management, Hwa Hsia University of Technology, New Taipei City, 23568, Taiwan

    Pio-Go Hsieh

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  1. Aswin Lim
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  2. Chang-Yu Ou
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  3. Pio-Go Hsieh
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Correspondence to Chang-Yu Ou.

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Lim, A., Ou, CY. & Hsieh, PG. A novel strut-free retaining wall system for deep excavation in soft clay: numerical study. Acta Geotech. 15, 1557–1576 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-019-00851-5

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