Performance of Excavations with Cross Walls

Abstract

This paper presents the performance of an excavation with cross walls based on field observations and numerical analysis results. A small strain constitutive model was used in the analysis. By comparing the movements of the real case with the same case but without cross walls installed, the effectiveness of cross walls was thus evaluated. Results indicate that the movements in the case history were substantially reduced by the installation of cross walls. The maximum wall deflection and ground settlement at a place where the cross wall was installed was reduced by about 75 and 82%, respectively. The movements near the diaphragm wall or cross wall corner were relatively small, compared with those far away from the corner. The diaphragm wall still had some deflection at the sections where cross walls were installed and the amount of deflection was close to that from linear elastic analysis. It is justified that slime between cross walls and diaphragm walls during trench excavation was fully cleaned.