Simulation of a corner slurry trench failure in clay

Some analytical methods have been proposed for the computation of the stability of plane open trenches supported by bentonite slurry. Nevertheless, there is no validated analytical method for the case of non-plane trenches which are required as stiff watertight corners in excavation pits. Simplified approaches replace the geometry of the corner (non-plane) trench by an equivalent plane trench. In this work it is shown, that some of these approaches are not adequate, as they oversimplify the geometry of the sliding body in the limit state and may overestimate the factor of safety against failure. Using a 3D finite element model it was possible to identify the geometry of the sliding body by simulating the stepwise excavation process of a corner trench in normal consolidated clay and its failure due to the reduction of bentonite support. The influence of the geometry of the trench, drainage conditions, material properties and anisotropy of the soil has been considered. In contrast to the simplified sliding body with the shape of a wedge on which analytical methods are based, the sliding body observed in the simulations has the shape of a quarter of a vertical cylinder, intersected by an inclined plane at its bottom.