Utilization of Underground Walls in Urban Areas

Abstract

The paper deals with the solution of the problem of the buildings foundation in confined spaces of urban development. The most commonly used solutions are the underground walls, which provide space for the construction pit during the construction of underground parts of buildings. They must meet certain conditions in the urban development. The paper focuses on the analysis of the interaction of wall systems (mainly sheeting structures of building pits) and the surrounding earth massif. The distribution of the contact stress influences decisively the dimensioning of the foundation structure and the assessment of the foundation soil in terms of limit states. Similarly, other load-bearing structures ensuring the stability and usability of a building have been affected by an increase in the deformation load, which may cause a noticeable increase in internal forces and bending moments, which are not normally considered or assumed in static calculations of external loads, or their determination is based on false assumptions. If the magnitude of the deformation effects is incorrectly determined, the serviceability or loss of stability of the building structure may be limited. For this reason, to ensure a reliable and economical design, it is necessary to describe as closely as possible the interaction of the foundation structure with the subsoil. A prerequisite for a correct and economical solution to the problem is to capture the physical nature of the task at all stages of the solution. The use of the possibilities provided by the mathematical apparatus of the most versatile numerical method - finite element method (FEM) also contributes significantly to a more complex analysis of the problem. The practical lining wall model of the Eurovea shopping and entertainment center in Bratislava, Slovakia has been chosen as a practical example of the calculation. The main reason was the availability of the results of available inclinometric measurements. These have been compared with the results of the structural design model. The task was to create a model of the underground (lining) wall and compare the obtained results with the inclinometric measurements on realized objects. The obtained results have been presented in graphical form.