Experimental, Numerical and Analytical Analysis on Diaphragm Wall in Cohesive Soil

The Diaphragm wall is a reinforced concrete wall that will isolate the structure from the adjacent structure and will also provide the basement for the accommodation of the residents.Unnecessary provision of anchors in diaphragm walls will increase the construction cost of diaphragm walls.In the research, one basement diaphragm of 0.5-meter thickness is taken into consideration along with 0.45-meter diameter pile.The pile was spaced at a distance of 3, 5, and 6 meters in cohesive soil.The numerical, analytical, and experimental methods were adopted to analyze and understand the behavior of the diaphragm wall.The embedment depth of 8.85 meters was obtained by analyzing using an analytical method.The numerical analysis was done using Plaxis 3D software.The experimental work was done for a model of a diaphragm wall and pile with a scale of 1:30.The bending moment available from numerical work and from analytical work was 51.11 kNm and 57.521 kNm.Experimental work found that the diaphragm wall had an average deflection of 25.41 millimeters and analytical analysis found an average deflection of 25.66 millimeters.All three methods concluded that the deflecting was within the permissible limit and that an 8.85-meter embedment depth was the most suitable embedment depth.It was also concluded that parameters like cohesion, density of soil, excavation depth, and angle of internal friction affect the stability of the Diaphragm wall.Research also found that excavation depth should be more than a ratio of 4 times cohesion to bulk density of soil.It was also concluded that the deflection of the diaphragm wall is independent of loading on the pile as deflection is only because of the soil pressure.