Behavior of a Deep Excavation and Damages on Adjacent Buildings: a Case Study in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper investigates the behavior of deep excavations and damages on adjacent buildings based on an excavation in a thick sand layer in Vietnam. Firstly, measured horizontal displacements of diaphragm walls were used to calibrate soil stiffness parameters for finite element analysis (FEA). Then, the behavior of diaphragm walls, groundwater, ground surface deformation, and an adjacent building was analyzed. The analysis results and damages observed in the field were used to review the validity of the criteria for evaluating the damage potential of excavation to adjacent buildings. It can be concluded from the study that the damage potential of adjacent buildings as evaluated from FEA through the strain state chart proposed by Boscardin and Cording (1989) or the damage potential index (DPI) proposed by Schuster et al. (2009) is fairly accurate with field observations.