Effects of the Diaphragm Wall Construction Process on Adjacent Ground and Buildings in Braced Excavations

The construction of diaphragm wall panels inevitably changes the initial stress condition and causes movements in the surrounding soil mass, which may also cause settlement and damages to adjacent buildings. Majority of current design and analyses of deep excavations assume that the diaphragm wall is wished-in-place, largely because of the complexities involved to consider the detailed wall installation process. Limited studies suggested that neglecting the wall installation effects would reduce the reliability of these analyses for both predictions and validations. This paper analyzes measured ground response and building settlements caused by diaphragm wall panel installation and highlights the importance of considering these installation effects in practical design. A realistic modeling procedure is then developed to incorporate the sequential diaphragm wall panel construction process in braced excavation analyses, to investigate the installation effects on adjacent ground and buildings. The computed results are consistent with those field measurements from different case studies. The benefits of the proposed approach are demonstrated though comparison with the conventional wished-in-place approach in the braced excavation analyses.