Seismic design of diaphragm wall nearby building to minimize the differential displacement during an earthquake

The permanent deformation of buildings at the edge of large excavations or valleys is an important issue attracts great attention among geotechnical researchers and the industry as a whole. This area exposes buildings to structural deformations due to ground movement beneath the foundations caused by the difference in displacement between the retaining wall and the nearby building, especially when the area is exposed to seismic activity. Faced with this problem, much research has been done to improve the soils properties or reinforce the retaining walls separately in order to reduce the displacement in general when exposed to seismic force. But the majority of them ignore the consideration of the interaction effect between structures through the seismic behavior of the soil under foundation, thus creating relative movement building walls; this will generate permanent structure deformations after moderate seismic accelerations. This research is carried out to improve the soil parameters and his seismic behavior through a new design of diaphragm walls in order to minimize the relative movement building wall in such a way to ensure a rigid displacement of soil-structure. The results show that the new design contributes considerably to improve the surrounding soil parameter under foundation in a manner toward reducing the interaction structure-wall and its impact is evident in minimizing permanent building deformations after seismic loads.