RETAINING WALLS IN URBAN AREAS. NUMERICAL MODELLING, CHARACTERISTIC INTERACTION PARAMETERS

Deep excavations in urban areas suppose to use retaining structures allowing the protection of the nearby existing buildings. Even if these structures are commonly used in civil engineering, their calculation and design are not simple, the interaction phenomena occurring between the soil, wall and nearby structures being important and difficult to take into account. Various models and calculation methods are available today for engineers, ranging from the simplest, classical ones (limit equilibrium methods) to the most advanced, as the FEM method. The papers aims to compare the results obtained using a classical calculation with the limit equilibrium method and those obtained from a 2D numerical modelling using FEM for an embedded retaining wall supported by struts. Various interaction parameters are taken into account such as the strut position, its stiffness or the soil - wall relative stiffness. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]