Application of Earth Berm in Foundation Pit Engineering

Abstract

Referring to a project in Tianjin, the paper has described the mechanism of the earth berm, and analyzed the influence on supporting structure from the earth berm using finite element. It was observed that the wider of the earth berm with constant height the smaller of the supporting structure deformation, and the deformation will tend to be stable when width reaches specific value. With constant width, the higher of the earth berm the smaller of the supporting structure deformation. The retaining of the earth berm should be reasonable and safe. Under the premise of the slope stability, the paper suggests that the height of the earth berm should be 2/3 of the excavation depth, and the width should be 1/2 of the excavation depth.