Geomechanics Simulation of Rapid Drawdown River for Ground

Subsidence Assessment in Construction Site Area

Proposal Exam
Examination Committee
Dr. Avirut Puttiwongrak (Chair-Person) Presented by
Dr. Kuo-Chieh Chao Myo Thet Ko
Dr. Pham Huy Giao st120960

Date:19.10.2020
 Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 3: Methodology

❖ Background ❖ Site Description

❖ Problem Statement ❖ Flow Chart
❖ Objectives ❖ Plaxis 3D
❖ Geometry Setting-up
❖ Scope of study
❖ Fully Coupled flow-deformation simulation
❖ Subsidence analysis
❖ Model Validation

Chapter 2: Literature Review

❖ Expected results
❖ Ground Subsidence ❖ Timeline of study
❖ Rapid Drawdown ❖ Budget plan
❖ Fully Coupled-Flow Deformation
❖ Unsaturated Soil Behavior

2
 Chapter 1
Introduction

❑ Background

❑ Problem Statement

❑ Objectives

❑ Scope of study

3
 Background

➢ Ground Subsidence is one of the geological hazards which cause the sinking and settling of the ground surface
level.

➢ Ground subsidence is occurred due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater, petroleum or natural gas.

➢ Rapid Drawdown is one of the destructive phenomenons related to the rapid decrease in the water table.

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 Problem Statement

o Some construction sites are close to the river

and canal in the Bangkok subsoil.

o The subsidence is caused probably due to a

rapid drawdown after the construction have been
finished.

o The subsidence in the study area has been

caused approximately 20 cm/ year.

o The exact causes are not studied yet for the

subsidence problem in this research.

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 Objectives

➢ The main objective of the study is to analyze the ground subsidence assessment with using fully coupled
flow-deformation analysis of 3D finite element program, Plaxis 3D software.

❑ To set up a conceptual model of the subsidence due to the rapid drawdown of river in the construction site.

❑ To expose the cause of subsidence in the construction site.

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 Scope of Study

❑ The study area is Casa Grand Ratchapruek-Rama 5 construction site area which is located besides
the waterway that is separated from the Chao Phraya River.

❑ Geomechanics simulation of fully coupled flow-deformation analysis is mainly performed in this

study.

❑ The expected timeline of the study is about 10 months starting from August 2020 to April 2021.

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 Chapter 2
Literature Review

❑ Ground Subsidence
❑ Rapid Drawdown
❑ Fully Coupled-Flow Deformation
❑ Unsaturated Soil Behavior

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 Ground Subsidence

o Poland (1984) stated that land subsidence is caused

because of the following reasons;

1. The compaction of aquifer system in response to the

increase of effective stress due to the artesian head
decline in the coarse-grained aquifers.

2. The time-dependent reduction of pore pressure in

the fine-grained compressible aquitards.

G.Ren et.al (2014) : Land of subsidence in

relation to cone of depression in aquifer

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 Rapid Drawdown

❑ Alonso and Pinyol (2016) stated that drawdown is a critical factor in the stability of slopes that are partially or
totally submerged.

❑ Pinyol et al. (2008) reported that the dissipation of the excess pore water pressure takes place over time resulting
in the settlement of the slopes in terms of rapid drawdown.

❑ Daraei et.al (2017) stated that the rapid drawdown leads to rapid decrease in pore pressure and increase in the
effective stress up to total stress which results the settlement in the tunnel project.

Yoo (2016):Ground settlement

affected by rapid drawdown during
tunneling

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Rapid Drawdown

Variation of Effective stress & Pore pressure

Daraei et.al (2017)

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Fully Coupled flow-deformation

➢ The simultaneous development of deformations and pore pressures in

saturated and partially saturated soils due to the result of time-
dependent hydraulic boundary conditions. (Plaxis Referance Manual,
2018)

➢ The cases where are required to use in the conditions of drawdown of

reservoir level behind a dam, partially drained excavation and
dewatering of a building site. (Plaxis Referance Manual, 2018)

➢ A combined method of the flow and the associated deformation to solve

the rapid drawdown problems ( Pinyol et al (2008))

➢ A coupled flow-deformation analysis is required for the porewater

distribution in a slope after the rapid drawdown condition in both
saturated and unsaturated soil (Alonso and Pinyol (2016))

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Unsaturated Soil Behavior

➢ Fully coupled flow deformation takes into account the unsaturated soil behavior and suction in the unsaturated
zone above the phreatic level.

➢ The soil becomes unsaturated when the water level drops. (Hsi et.al, 1994).
.

https://people.utm.my/azril/trip-to-nus/

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 Chapter 3
Methodology

❑ Site Description
❑ Flow Chart
❑ Plaxis 3D
❑ Geometry Setting-up
❑ Fully coupled flow-deformation Simulation
❑ Subsidence analysis
❑ Model Validation

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 Study Area

Casa Grand Ratchapruek-Rama 5 near the waterway that is separated from the Chao Phraya River,
Location
Bang Yai District, Nonthaburi Province.

BH-3

BH-2

BH-1

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Site Description

16
Flow Chart

17
Data Collection & Gathering

➢ Basic Engineering Soil Properties data ➢ Field Test: SPT data

❖ Unit weight γs (kN/m^3) ❖ Undrained Shear Strength Su

❖ Water Content ❖ Friction angle Ø
❖ Atterberg Limits ❖ Cohesion
❖ Sieve Analysis

➢ Borehole log data ➢ Consolidation data

❖ Subsoil Profile ❖ Hydraulic Conductivity k (m/s)

❖ Groundwater Level

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 Conceptual-Model

Ground Level
Subsidence level due to drawdown Ground Level
River Fill
G.W level

Soft Clay

Loose to medium dense sand

Stiff to Very Stiff Clay

Drawdown level

Dense to Very Dense Sand

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Subsoil Profile

Depth (m)
Depth (m)

Symbol

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 Plaxis 3D

➢ Plaxis 3D is acquired by Bentley Systems which is an American-

based software development company.

➢ Powerful 3D Geotechnical Finite Element Software that performs

analysis of deformation, flow and stability in geotechnical
engineering.

➢ Simulation of the unsaturated, time-dependent, and anisotropic

behavior of soil can be performed.

➢ Simultaneous calculation changes in pore pressures and

deformation by performing a fully-coupled flow-deformation
analysis.

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 Geometry Setting-up

❑ Geometry of the model will be constructed which is based on the map of project site area.

❑ The dimensions of the model will be set according to the map of project site.

❑ Geometry of the model will be based on the subsoil profile which has depth of 30 m and five soil layers.

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 Geometry Setting-up

❑ Boreholes Creation

❑ Soil Stratigraphy Creation

❑ Material Properties Assignments

❑ Constitutive Model Selection (Mohr-Coulomb)

❑ Geotechnical parameters input

❑ Hydraulic model selection (Hypres, Van Ganuchten model)

❑ Flow parameters input

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Fully-Coupled Flow Deformation Simulation
(Numerical Model)

➢ Deformation model (Mohr-Coulomb model)

Elasticity behavior: Hooke’s Law

𝜎=𝐸𝜖

Plasticity behavior: Mohr-Coulomb-Criterion

𝜏 = σ′ 𝑡𝑎𝑛Ø′+𝑐′
Where: Mohr-Coulomb model needs five input parameters
𝜏 = shear strength
σ′ = effective normal stress • Elastic Young Modulus E (kN/m2)
𝑐′ = cohesion • Poisson ratio ν
Ø′ = internal friction angle • Cohesion “c” or undrained shear strength Su
E = Young Elastic modulus • Friction angle φ
𝜖 = strain • Dilatancy Angle Ψ
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 Fully-Coupled Flow Deformation Simulation
(Numerical Model)
➢ Hydraulic Model (Hypres, Van Genuchten model)

▪ Predefined data set of Hypres has Van Genuchten model to define unsaturated soil behavior’

▪ The Van Genuchten function (1980) is a three-parameter equation and also relatable with the saturation to the pressure
head ψ

𝑆 𝜓 = 𝑆𝑟𝑒𝑠 + 𝑆𝑠𝑎𝑡 − 𝑆𝑟𝑒𝑠 1 + 𝑔𝑎 𝜓 𝑔𝑛 𝑔𝑐

𝑆𝑠𝑎𝑡 is the saturation where the pores cannot be filled with water completely in general and air bubbles
𝑆𝑟𝑒𝑠 is a residual saturation in which specifies the part of the fluid which remains inside the pores even at the high suction
heads.
𝑔𝑎 represents a fitting parameter that is relatable with air entry value of the soil.
𝑔𝑛 is a fitting parameter which is the rate of water extraction function from the soil once the air entry value is exceeded.
𝑔𝑐 is a fitting parameter used in Van Genuchten equation.

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 Coupled Equation

❑ Biot’s equation is presented as the coupled behavior which is represented by both the equilibrium equation and
the continuity equation of the water-soil mixture.
𝑑𝜈 𝑑𝑓
𝐾 𝑄 𝑑𝑡 0 0 𝜈 𝑢

𝑑𝑃𝑤 =0 𝐻 𝑃 + 𝑑𝑡
𝐶 −𝑆 𝑤 𝐺 + 𝑞𝑝
𝑑𝑡
Where :
𝐾 is the stiffness matrix (Stress dependent)
𝑄 is the coupling matrix (Suction dependent)
𝐶 and 𝑆 are the compressibility matrix (Suction dependent)
𝐻 is the permeability matrix (Suction dependent)
𝐺 is the factor which effect of gravity on flow in vertical direction (Suction dependent)
𝑞𝑝 is the flux on the boundaries
𝑓𝑢 is the increment of load vector
𝑃𝑤 is the pore water pressure
𝜈 is the nodal value of displacement.

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Fully Coupled Flow-Deformation
(Mohr-Coulomb Parameters)

• Review the back calculated analysis of the previous

Stiffness Parameters literature which shows the relationship between E’/Su
E, ν or Eu/Su & SPT N value of Bangkok Subsoil.
2 1+𝜈′
• 𝐸 ′ = 3 𝐸𝑢
• ν’ (estimated by reviewing previous literature of
Bangkok subsoil)
(0.3-0.4) (Bowles(1986))

Strength Parameters • Cohesion can be modelled as the undrained shear

strength Su together with ϕ= ϕu =0.(Plaxis Referance
c’, ϕ’
Manual,2018)

• Clay soils tend to show almost zero(Ψ≈0)

Dilatancy angle (Ψ) • Sand depends on both density and friction angle. Ψ ≈
ϕ -30’ (quartz sand) (Plaxis Referance Manual,2018)

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Fully-Coupled Flow Deformation Simulation
(Flow parameter)

➢ Saturated permeabilities: ( kx , ky , kz ) ➢ A Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) is used to describe the
❑ Set automatically by either selecting from hydraulic parameters of groundwater flow in unsaturated zones.
the data set option or grain size distribution
in case of Standard, Hypres or USDA data
set in Plaxis program.

➢ Permeabilities can be obtained as below

❑ Consolidation data

❑ Void ratio-Permeability relationship

❑ kh = kv (kx = ky = kz, Isotropic)

SWCC curve of sandy material (Plaxis Material Model (2018))

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 Boundary & Initial Conditions

➢ The hydraulic conditions (the groundwater flow boundary conditions) have special conditions to control the
porewater pressure at certain locations for the cases where ground water flow calculations or fully coupled flow
deformation.

Boundary Condition Initial Condition

➢ Seepage ➢ Head
▪ A boundary where water can flow in or out • A boundary where can specify the head with
freely. time.
▪ Interface between river and soil boundary. • Time dependent condition
• Drawdown scenarios (Rapid , Slow drawdown)
➢ Closed
▪ A boundary where no flow can occur across it.
▪ Area of the soil that close to the construction
area or building.

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 Subsidence Analysis

(1) Rapid Drawdown (2) Slow Drawdown (3) Low water level

∆H = x m ∆H = x m ❖ Set the water level

Time ‘t’ = t1 days (minimum) Time ‘t’ = t2 days (maximum) Simulation time = 2years
Drawdown rate = x / t1 (m/days) Drawdown rate = x / t2 (m/days)
Simulation time = 2years Simulation time = 2years

∆H, t1 t1<< t2 ∆H, t2

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Model Validation

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Expected Result

• Setting up the subsurface of soil models can be

carried out in the study area

• Rapid drawdown is a real cause of high

subsidence failure in study area.

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 Research Timeline

2020 2021
Tasks Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Proposal Manuscript Preparation

Proposal Presentation Preparation

Proposal Exam
Data Collection & Analysis
Model Setting-Up & Simulation
Final Manuscript Preparation
Final Presentation Preparation
Final Defense & Submission

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Budget Plan

Expense Amount (Baht) Remark

Research Materials 4000
Conference Paper 2000 Publication fees
Transportation Fees 1500
Thesis Book 2500 Photocopy fees
Total Amount 10000

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THANK YOU

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