Plane strain evaluation of stress paths for supported excavations under lateral loading and unloading

Excavations are generally analyzed as plane strain problems. The shear strength parameters determined from the triaxial conditions are not representative of the real field conditions. Therefore, plane strain tests on reconstructed silty clay were performed using a modified apparatus to measure the stress-strain curves directly. Three stress paths were tested, where the lower shear strength and the failure strain were measured for tests with unloading in the minor principal stress direction and compared to tests with loading. A set of hyperbolic constitutive models was developed to fit the experimental data at different stress paths. The stress-strain-strength characteristics and the deformation parameters were determined for these tests. A displacement-dependent earth pressure model was then proposed for retaining walls due to excavations, and then it was calibrated against the measured soil response. In the end, a case history of bored pile walls subjected to excavations was illustrated. Calculations using the proposed approach and the standard Mohr-Coulomb model were compared. The analysis using the standard Mohr-Coulomb model was found to underestimate the maximum wall deflection by 15%.