Local Stability of Trench for Diaphragm Walls Passing through Deep Weak Interlayer

When trench construction of the diaphragm wall passes through an ultradeep and weak interlayer, local instability of the trench wall occurs easily. To study the mechanism of the local instability in the trench and by considering the effect of soil arching based on the length of the trench and the angle of internal friction in the weak interlayer, the disturbed area of the trench is defined to be a semiellipse and the local failure stability model of the semiellipse is established. The local stability safety factor of the trench wall is obtained by the limit equilibrium analysis of the model. By conducting parameter sensitivity studies, the results show that the thickness of the overlying strata, the unit weight of the slurry, the angle of internal friction, and the cohesion of the weak interlayer have a great influence on the stability of the trench wall. The semiellipsoid model is used to analyze the stability of the trench wall of the diaphragm wall of a subway station. The calculated results are basically consistent with the field monitoring results. All the work of the paper shows that the model is practical to some extent.