Chapter 4

STABILITY OF EXCAVATIONS

CE 477 GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING I

S.I.K. AMPADU
KNUST-KUMASI
May 2022
Example of an Excavation
Information required before selecting suitable
lateral support system
• Detailed layout of proposed surface excavation
• Detailed geotechnical information including ….
• Knowledge of site and its environments
• Is it a temporary excavation or a permanent
solution?
 Assessment of Stability
Technique for stability
B
assessment depends
SIDES
• Geometry of excavation (shape, Evaluation
width, depth) H against
collapse
• Material to be excavated
• Material beneath excavation down
to 0.7B
BOTTOM
• Ground water regime Evaluation against
heave (piping)
 Examples of situations

Safety of existing structures For pipeline construction

 Sides of Temporary Excavations
• Vertical Unsupported Excavations
• Used for stiff cohesive soils and soft rock for H<Hc
• Caution: Risk of failure in tropical residual soils
• Slope Stability Analysis
• Cut slopes back at angle consistent with safety (CE 360)
• Involves more material than necessary hence expensive
• May not be feasible due to constrains in adjoining land
use
• Braced excavations
• Support and brace sides of excavations as excavation
proceeds
 Design Principles
• In water bearing sands and silts
• Provide continuous support to sides using
• timber runners,
• steel trench sheets,
• sheet piling
• In stiff clays, clay-bound gravel, compact sands, stratified rocks
• Provide support at intervals to prevent inward yielding and avoid risk of
collapse due to opening of fissures
• Wide Excavations
• use raking struts (shores) or ground anchors as tie backs
• Design of support schemes must avoid waste of support material and must be
safe. (cost vrs safety)
 Bracing Excavations
Sheeting

• The retaining structure may be

• Sheet piling (made of steel, concrete,
or wood)
Wales

• Soldier beams with or without lagging

Strut
• Drilled in place concrete piles
• Systems to hold the retaining wall in
place:
• wales and struts or rakers
• Compression rings for relatively small
excavations
• Tie back anchorage
 Pressure Distribution on
Strutted Excavations
•Real distribution of pressure against bracing differs
significantly from the classical active pressure distribution
(Coulomb, Ranking etc see CE 359)
•Total thrust may exceed theoretical active thrust by up to
15%
•Reason: Restriction of movement at strut points causes
arching between struts
 Pressure Distribution
0.25H 0.25H For soft to medium clay,

æ 4c ö
K a = 1 - çç ÷÷
è gH ø
0.5 H

0.75H

0.25H

0.2gH to 0.4gH
0.65gHKa gHKa

Ka = tan 2(45 - f/2)

SOFT TO STIFF FISSURED
SAND MEDIUM CLAY CLAY
 Structural Design of Bracing
The strut loads are computed as follows:
• consider the span between two successive rows of struts as a simply
supported beam
• Impose loading equivalent to the area of pressure diagram over the
span.
• Strut loads are equal to the reactions at the appropriate supports of
the beams.
• The total load carried by a row of struts is obtained by multiplying the
strut loads by the horizontal spacing of the struts..
 Example:-The Problem
The temporary excavation in a layer of sand
is shown. The sand has a unit weight 18
kN/m3 with an angle of internal friction of
40o. The struts are spaced longitudinally at
6.0m centres.

• Sketch the lateral pressure distribution along the

length of the sheeting that will be used for the
design of the excavation
• Calculate the forces in the top, middle and bottom
struts.
• Which strut is the most critical strut in terms of
providing the support?
The Solution- The pressures
1.00

3.00

6.00m sand

3.00

6.00m 2.00

pa=0.65KagH

PLAN VIEW
SECTION

K a = tan 2 (45o - f2 ) p a = 0.65 ´ 0.2174 ´ 18 ´ 9

p a = 22.9 ´ 6 per strut
= tan 2 (45 - 402 ) = 137.38 kN/m
= 0.2174
The Solution-The beam
137.38kN/m

1.00 3.00 3.00 2.00

PA 1 PA 2 Pc 1 Pc 2
PB 1 PB 2

PA1 = 137.38 ´ 1 PA = 137.38 + 206.07 = 343.45kN

PA2 = PB1 = PB2 = PC1
= 12 ´ 137.38 ´ 3 = 206.07kN PB = 206.07 + 206.07 = 412.14kN
PC2 = 137.38 ´ 2 = 274.76kN PC = 206.07 + 274.76 = 480.83kN
 Effect of Ground Water Regime
• The problem of water flow into excavation