A simple evaluation method of adjacent ground settlement due to excavation work

The prediction of back-fill settlement due to the excavation work is getting important, particularly in the urban area. The finite element simulation would be a suitable choice to answer it. However, it is less feasible in practice to carry it out because input parameters needed in the F.E. simulation are not sufficiently provided in advance at the stage of design work. In the past, some simple evaluation methods for predicting the back-fill settlement due to excavation works were presented by Peck, Long and Moormann et al. and so on. In this paper, a new method capable for predicting the back-fill settlement at the stage of design work is proposed, taking account of design parameters, i.e. soil parameters, retaining wall parameters and construction sequences. The proposed method is built up based on a lot of monitored records obtained from sites and the numerical results obtained from a series of F.E. simulations for imaginary excavation works. It is designed to be simple and useful at the stage of design work. This method consists of two parts, predictions of the maximum amount of back-fill settlement and the distance from the retaining wall. Finally, some case studies in which the proposed new method was applied to actual excavation sites in Japan are presented.