An efficient probabilistic back-analysis method for braced excavations using wall deflection data at multiple points

This paper presents an efficient Bayesian back-analysis procedure for braced excavations using wall deflection data at multiple points. Response surfaces obtained from finite element analyses are adopted to efficiently evaluate the wall responses. Deflection data for 49 wall sections from 11 case histories are collected to characterize the model error of the finite element method for evaluating the deflections at various points. A braced excavation project in Hang Zhou, China is chosen to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure. The results indicate that the soil parameters could be updated more significantly for the updating that uses the deflection data at multiple points than that only uses the maximum deflection data. The predicted deflections from the updated parameters agree fairly well with the field observations. The main significance of the proposed procedure is that it improves the updating efficiency of the soil parameters without adding monitoring effort compared with the traditional method that uses the maximum deflection data. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.