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Mechanism and control of progressive collapse of tied-back excavations induced by local anchor failure

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Abstract

The collapse of tied-back excavations frequently occurs due to anchor failures. However, the mechanism by which the anchor failure evolves to a large-scale collapse of the excavation has seldom been studied. To investigate the progressive collapse mechanism of anchored pile excavations, the finite difference method was adopted to carry out anchor failure simulations. In single-level anchored pile excavation, failure of anchors would lead to an obvious increase in axial forces in 3–4 adjacent anchors. When the number of failed anchors was low, the failure path developed in the anchors, and the bending moments of the piles in the failure zone decreased. When the number of failed anchors was greater than a certain number, the piles in the failure zone gradually became cantilevered and failed, which indicates that the failure path was transferred to the piles. In multi-level (such as two or three levels) anchored pile excavation, the partial failure of the first-level anchors has a great impact on the adjacent anchors, and causes the pile bending moments to decrease, while the partial failure of the lowest-level anchors has the opposite effects. The impact of partial failure of only one-level anchors in a multilevel anchored pile system was less than that in a single-level anchored pile system with the same excavation depth. However, the impact of column-anchor failure in a multi-level anchored pile system was significantly greater than that of a single-level anchored pile system, which easily led to progressive collapse. Therefore, construction or design methods, such as the interval level anchor strengthening method, should be adopted to limit the partial failure in a certain level. Anchor failure in a single-level anchor-pile system or column-anchor failure in a multi-level anchored pile system easily led to damage to the capping beam and waler beam. Then it would cause pile failure and accelerate the excavation collapse process. Therefore, the capping (waler) beam should be designed under the column-anchor failure condition to improve the overall safety performance of the retaining system.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52178343), the Research and Development Program of China Construction Second Engineering Bureau LTD (91110000100024296D200003), and the Research and Development Program of China State Construction Engineering Corporation LTD (CSCEC-2021-Z-25). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure Safety, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    G. Zheng, R. Z. Wang & X. S. Cheng

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    G. Zheng, R. Z. Wang, X. S. Cheng, Y. W. Lei & X. Y. Li

  3. China Construction Second Engineering Bureau Ltd., Beijing, 100160, China

    Y. W. Lei

  4. State Key China Construction Infrastructure Corp., Ltd., Beijing, 100044, China

    Q. Zhou

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  1. G. Zheng
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Correspondence to X. S. Cheng.

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Zheng, G., Wang, R.Z., Cheng, X.S. et al. Mechanism and control of progressive collapse of tied-back excavations induced by local anchor failure. Acta Geotech. 19, 763–781 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-023-01930-4

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