Barrier Effect of Existing Building Pile on the Responses of Groundwater and Soil During Foundation Pit Dewatering

In regions with abundant groundwater resources, pre-excavation dewatering on deep foundation pits often leads to the deformation of the enclosure wall and settlement of the surrounding ground. Based on a series of engineering measurements, we conducted a series of numerical simulations to investigate the behaviors of wall and soil during pre-excavation dewatering with and without the existing pile foundations and under different distances between the existing pile foundations and foundation pits (D). Numerical results indicated that when the foundation pit is adjacent to existing building pile foundations, the soil was restricted by the pile foundations (i.e., soil-blocking effect). When D ≤ 40 m, the soil-blocking effect grows stronger as D gets smaller; while when D > 40 m, the soil-blocking effect is significantly weakened and the water-blocking effect (i.e., the blockage of groundwater seepage by the building pile foundation) gradually appears, which intensifies the ground surface settlement. The maximum settlement position of the soil behind the pile foundation of the existing building is farther away from the foundation pit as the soil-blocking effect becomes stronger. The coupling effect of soil-blocking and water-blocking on the ground deformation should be considered in the design of the foundation pit project to get a more reasonable support and dewatering scheme.