Experimental and numerical study on behavior of retaining structure with limited soil

With the development of city construction, the situations of foundation pit excavations adjacent to an existing structure occur more frequently. A series of centrifuge model tests and numerical analyses considering actual excavation process were performed to study the deformation and earth pressure of retaining wall, deformation characteristics of retained soil with various limited soil widths. The horizontal displacement and bending moment of the retaining wall decrease with decreasing limited soil width while the rate of the decrease increases with decreasing limited soil width. The horizontal displacement of the retained soil decreases with decreasing limited soil width while the settlement of the retained soil increases with increasing limited soil width. The deformation zone is almost triangular for unlimited condition and trapezoidal for limited condition. As the limited soil width decreases, the deformation zone shrinks and the inclination of deformation zone increases. The lateral earth pressure on the retaining wall shows two-segment distribution and decreases with decreasing limited soil width. The vertical earth pressure shows non-uniform distribution along width and decreases with decreasing limited soil width due to increasing arching effect. The critical width is much smaller than excavation influence width. This may be explained by the fact that only the deformation of soil within critical width will influence the soil near the wall.