A PARAMETRIC STUDY OF THE BUTTRESS WALLS BEHAVIOUR IN LIMITING THE DIAPHRAGM WALL DISPLACEMENTS

Buttress walls represent a construction technique used to reduce diaphragm wall displacements induced by deep excavations. Three-dimensional finite element analyses were performed to assess the effectiveness of buttress walls in limiting diaphragm wall displacements during deep excavation. Accordingly, a parametric study was carried out by varying several geometric parameters, such as excavation depth, buttress wall length and the spacing between them. To investigate the influence of the soil type, both cohesive and cohesionless soil were used. Also, the impact of frictional resistance between the buttress walls and the adjacent soil was considered. The results show the influence of all these parameters on the behaviour of the buttress walls.