Open AccessRetaining walls in Dublin Boulder Clay, Ireland
Author(s) -
Michael Long,
Carl Brangan,
C. O. Menkiti,
Michael Looby,
Patrick J. Casey
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
proceedings of the institution of civil engineers. geotechnical engineering/proceedings of ice. geotechnical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1751-8563
pISSN - 1353-2618
DOI - 10.1680/geng.9.00091
Subject(s) - serviceability (structure) , geotechnical engineering , excavation , stiffness , dissipation , clay soil , consolidation (business) , limit state design , geology , engineering , civil engineering , structural engineering , soil water , soil science , physics , accounting , business , thermodynamics
A good number of deep excavations have been recently completed in Dublin Boulder Clay, Ireland. These have included propped walls up to 25 m deep and permanent cantilevers 7.5 m high. Experience elsewhere in the world was used to design and construct these walls. However, case history data have shown that the behaviour of the
walls in Dublin Boulder Clay is very rigid and much stiffer than comparable systems worldwide. It appears this behaviour is due to the inherent natural strength and stiffness of the soil and the slow dissipation of excavation induced depressed pore pressures or suctions. There appears to be scope for developing more efficient designs and
in particular for reducing propping requirements. For temporary works, the use of undrained parameters in serviceability limit state calculations together with implementation of the observational approach on site could be considered for future schemes