Improved prediction of pile bending moment and deflection due to adjacent braced excavation

Deep excavations in dense urban areas have caused damage to nearby existing structures in numerous past construction cases. Proper assessment is crucial in the initial design stages. This study develops equations to predict the existing pile bending moment and deflection produced by adjacent braced excavations. Influential parameters (i.e., the excavation geometry, diaphragm wall thickness, pile geometry, strength and small-strain stiffness of the soil, and soft clay thickness) were considered and employed in the developed equations. It is practically unfeasible to obtain measurement data; hence, artificial data for the bending moment and deflection of existing piles were produced from well-calibrated numerical analyses of hypothetical cases, using the three-dimensional finite element method. The developed equations were established through a multiple linear regression analysis of the artificial data, using the transformation technique. In addition, the three-dimensional nature of the excavation work was characterized by considering the excavation corner effect, using the plane strain ratio parameter. The estimation results of the developed equations can provide satisfactory pile bending moment and deflection data and are more accurate than those found in previous studies.