Abstract
This paper presents the results of two parametric finite-element studies that were carried out using the PLAXIS-3D finite element (FE) computer code. The following objectives and corresponding parameters were considered: (i) to evaluate the soil pressure on the steel trench box shield; the parameters studied were related to soil type and material, and the study considered till, dry sand, wet sand, and sensitive clay soil; (ii) to assess the effect of trench box material and geometry on earth pressure; the parameters studied were related to trench box material (steel versus aluminum) as well as geometry (plate thickness and strut diameter). These studies included simulation of two steel (or aluminum) trench box shields stacked upon each other to cover the total 6 m (20 ft) deep trench. A Mohr-Coulomb (MC) constitutive material model was chosen for FE analysis (FEA). The FEA results were compared to empirical apparent earth pressure diagrams for a sensitive clay. Comparisons showed that the parameters related to the soil and the trench box have a significant influence on earth pressures.
Highlights
Evaluation of horizontal earth pressure is of major importance when designing any soil retaining structure [1, 2]
This paper presents the influence of soil parameters and shield material type and geometry on the earth pressures on a flexible temporary trench box shield
It is evident that when the trench box material type and geometry changed, the earth pressure on the temporary shield changed for the same soil type
Summary
Evaluation of horizontal earth pressure is of major importance when designing any soil retaining structure [1, 2]. Alam et al [19] compared a full-scale experimental in situ test of 6 m depth with 3D FEM to investigate the earth pressure on a flexible temporary trench box shield in soft and sensitive clay soil using PLAXIS-3D software. An FE model using PLAXIS-3D software [20] shows a comprehensive picture of the influence of soil parameters on earth pressures on a flexible temporary trench box shield in till, dry sand, wet sand, and sensitive clay. These FEM analysis results are compared to published empirical apparent earth pressure diagrams [7]. The influence of shield material type and geometry on the earth pressure in a trench excavation is presented
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