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Three-Dimensional Circular Trapdoor Stability

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Abstract

The stability of a circular opening trapdoor in undrained cohesive soils is numerically investigated using three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations. FLAC3D, a finite difference program using the shear strength reduction method (SSRM), is employed to determine the factor of safety (FoS) solutions that are a function of the depth ratio and the shear strength ratio. Numerical results from the current FoS study suggest that the 3D circular opening results are almost twice larger than those in 2D study. The strong arching effects have been noted for deeper cases, and the corresponding global failure mechanism is observed. The results are compared with published solutions in the literature. Practical examples are used to demonstrate how to use the design charts and equations in practice.

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The data and materials in this paper are available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia

    Jim Shiau, Ji-Sung Lee & Mohammad Mirza Hassan

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand

    Suraparb Keawsawasvong

Authors
  1. Jim Shiau
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  2. Suraparb Keawsawasvong
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  3. Ji-Sung Lee
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  4. Mohammad Mirza Hassan
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Contributions

Jim Shiau acquired supervision, methodology, and contributed to conceptualization, writing—original draft

Suraparb Keawsawasvong contributed to writing—review and editing

Ji-Sung Lee acquired methodology and software and contributed to investigation and data curation

Mohammad Mirza Hassan acquired methodology and software and contributed to investigation and data curation

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suraparb Keawsawasvong.

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Shiau, J., Keawsawasvong, S., Lee, JS. et al. Three-Dimensional Circular Trapdoor Stability. Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech. 9, 173–184 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40515-021-00166-7

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