Japanese Geotechnical Society Special Publication The 15th Asian Regional Conference on
Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
Responses of adjacent ground and building induced by excavation using 3D decoupled simulation
Horn-Da Lin i), Sang Mendy ii), Phuoc H. Dang ii), Yo-Ming Hsieh iii) and Cheng-Cheng Chen i)
i) Professor, Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
ii) Graduate Student, Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei,
Taiwan.
iii) Associated Professor, Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a study on excavation-induced deformation characteristics of ground and adjacent building using
three-dimensional (3D) decoupled simulations. A decoupled analytical technique is proposed to enhance the
consideration of both the 3D nonlinear soil behavior and the inelastic structure responses. The excavation effects and
the adjacent structure’s responses are decoupled and simulated by two separate programs: PLAXIS 3D for
excavation and SAP 2000 for structure. Two models are bridged by a simple iteration scheme. A well-documented
excavation case history and low-rise framed building are used for demonstration. The obtained results exhibit that
the decoupled analytical method is feasible to incorporate properly the 3D nonlinear soil behavior and the inelastic
structure responses. It also seems practical to use since the numerical outcomes often converge within several
iterations. The analytical results show that the lateral and vertical movements of the structure are significantly
different from those of the greenfield ground. In addition, more in-depth inelastic structure responses can be
investigated such as where the plastic hinge may occur in the structure. This is a significant advancement as it
provides additional insights on assessing the building’s potential damage and serviceability.
Keywords: excavation, soil-structure interaction, decoupled analysis, building damage potential
1 INTRODUCTION account the nonlinear soil behavior and the inelastic
building behavior. In this pilot study, the excavation
With the rapid infrastructural development in urban
and the adjacent building were decoupled and simulated
cities, the need for space makes it necessary to conduct
by two separate programs that are specified for the
deep excavations. The movements caused by such
excavation and the structure. The preliminary results
excavations can cause damage on nearby buildings,
are very promising and warrant further study. Therefore,
especially for the low-rise buildings founded on spread
this decoupled analytical procedure is enhanced in this
footings. It is because this kind of structure may be
paper in a more comprehensive manner. The developed
vulnerable to the differential settlements induced by the
technique will be demonstrated with a well-documented
excavation. Therefore, it is important to predict those
excavation case history. The 3D greenfield excavation
movements and take precautionary measures in order to
model is firstly considered. The nearby building is then
prevent these damages.
taken into account. The responses of the excavation and
Numerical analysis has been a useful tool in
the adjacent building are studied. The effects of the
predicting the behavior of excavations. Even though
building existence on the excavation behavior are also
great achievements have been made, the behavior of
examined.
excavations with buildings nearby is hard to predict
with the current approaches since most of the
2 DECOUPLED ANALYSIS PROCEDURE
simulations are simply done in the plane strain
condition or without considering the adjacent building. The primary concept of the decoupled analysis
In some cases, the building is considered but its procedure is to decouple the excavation-structure
geometry is usually simplified and structural properties system into two individual problems of excavation and
are limited within linear elastic range. structure. In particular, the excavation and building are
In a recent study, the authors (Lin et al. 2014) modeled respectively by PLAXIS 3D and SAP 2000 as
presented a 3D simulation procedure of the excavation illustrated in Figure 1. Detailed dimensions of the
problem with building consideration that can take into excavation and the adjacent building are omitted here
[Link] 1437