Experimental Investigation of Model Diaphragm Wall

Abstract

In this paper an experimental study is presented referring to a model diaphragm wall of the cast in-situ cantilever type. Of basic interest is the kinematic behavior of the soil-wall system when wall penetration depth was decreasing. Experimental data made evident that the latter was the factor that governed the stability of the whole system. In fact, as penetration depth decreased, horizontal and vertical wall movements increased rapidly, while the instantaneous wall rotation center moved towards the wall toe. Accordingly, sand displacements, consisting primarily of settlements as penetration depth was decreasing, were limited inside a triangular shaped area, while they were giving rise to considerable sliding on the contact wall-soil interface. As a consequence, important friction was mobilized at that surface. Finally, normal earth pressures were decreasing constantly with penetration depth, giving rise to a parabolical shape distribution when the embedment ratio was small. (Author)