Effect of voids on soil-nailed wall performance; a numerical study

Studying the interaction between voids and retaining structures is vitally important, since the performance of such structures may negatively affected by nearby voids such as aqueducts, metro tunnels, and water collection tunnels in heavily urbanised areas. In this study, the impact of horizontal voids on a soil-nailed wall performance has been investigated. Horizontal deformations and ground surface settlements of a soil-nailed wall, which is close to a void, are analysed by simulation in ABAQUS. The results show that increasing the diameter of the voids leads to the exacerbation of horizontal deformation and vertical ground settlement. At a constant distance from the soil-nailed wall, the void closer to the surface of the ground had a greater destructive influence on wall performance. The worst state for the wall was occurred by a void, having 12 m diameter and situated at 16 m in depth from the surface. The acquired results were 34% and 350% increase for horizontal deformation and ground settlement, respectively.