Abstract
Stability of slurry-supported trenches is investigated in this study, with a discretization-based kinematic analysis procedure. Such a procedure retains the merits of discretization technique (discretizing the problem of interest into infinitesimal elements for the ease of considering complicated scenarios) and upper-bound analysis (deriving a rigorous upper bound solution at limit state with a sophisticated procedure). Semi-analytical solutions are derived for the upper-bound formulations of safety factor and the slurry density required for trench stability, based on the work rate balance equation. Conventional upper-bound analysis yields a closed-form solution when considering simple problems. To encompass more scenarios, drained effective stress and undrained total stress analyses are performed. Two examples are given to investigate the effect of slurry height, pore water pressure, soil strength and excavation process on trench stability, in normally consolidated and layered soil strata.
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