Wall and Ground Movements due to Deep Excavations in Shanghai Soft Soils

An extensive database of 300 case histories of wall displacements and ground settlements due to deep excavations in Shanghai soft soils were collected and analyzed. The mean values of the maximum lateral displacements of walls constructed by the top-down method, walls constructed by the bottom-up method (including diaphragm walls, contiguous pile walls, and compound deep soil mixing walls), sheet pile walls, compound soil nail walls, and deep soil mixing walls are 0.27%H, 0.4%H, 1.5%H, 0.55%H, and 0.91%H, respectively, where H is the excavation depth. The mean value of the maximum ground surface settlement is 0.42%H. The settlement influence zone reaches to a distance of about 1.5H to 3.5H from the excavation. The ratio between the maximum ground surface settlement and the maximum lateral displacement of a wall generally ranges from 0.4 to 2.0, with an average value of 0.9. The factors affecting the deformation of the wall were analyzed. It shows that there is a slight evidence of a trend for decreasing wall displacement with increasing system stiffness and the factor of safety against basal heave. Wall and ground movements were also compared with that observed in worldwide case histories.