Analysing Allowable Horizontal Displacements of Retaining Wall Based on Limited Settlements of Adjacent Building

Abstract

This paper proposed and validated allowable horizontal displacements of retaining wall based on limited settlements of adjacent building with shallow foundation. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) by Hardening Soil (HS) model was employed to verify horizontal displacements of retaining wall (δ_max) and settlements of adjacent building (U_y) from seven well-documented excavation cases in Ho Chi Minh (HCM) city, Vietnam. Following the comparisons between the FEA results and field observations, a close correlation between δ_max/H and U_y was proposed to δ_max/H = -αU_y, in which α was unit coefficient varying according to excavation depth H(m). Another case of deep excavation in Ha Noi city, Vietnam was used as a practical application to confirm the obtained results.