In urban areas, construction of underground stations and basements is always a challenging task due to the presence of dense sensitive buildings in the vicinity. The main objective of this paper is to predict the ground movements associated with construction phase of launching shaft excavation in Bangalore Metro project analytically. Also, the comparison of these predicted values with numerical values, and subsequently with actual measurements is presented. These values will help to assess the potential damage, both architecturally and structurally, to the existing building in the influence zone due to ground movements. The principles given by (Bowles JE (1990) Foundation analysis and design, 4th Edn. McGraw-Hill book company, New York, USA. Foundation Analysis and design. 4th Ed., McGraw-Hill book company, New York, USA.) and (Clough and O’Rourke, Specialty conference on Design and Performance of Earth Retaining structures, ASCE Special publication, No. 25:439–470, Clough GW, O’Rourke TD (1990) Construction induced movements of in-situ walls. In: Specialty conference on Design and Performance of Earth Retaining structures, vol. 25. ASCE Special publication, pp. 439-470) depending on the type of soil shall be used to compute ground movements of buildings present in the influence zone. Based on several case histories, (Clough and O’Rourke, Specialty conference on Design and Performance of Earth Retaining structures, ASCE Special publication, No. 25:439–470, Clough GW, O’Rourke TD (1990) Construction induced movements of in-situ walls. In: Specialty conference on Design and Performance of Earth Retaining structures, vol. 25. ASCE Special publication, pp. 439-470) suggested that the settlement profile is triangular for an excavation in sandy soil or stiff clay. The maximum ground surface settlement will occur just behind the wall. The influence zone of the corresponding settlement will extend about twice to thrice of the influence depth (He) for sandy soil and stiff to very hard clays, respectively. This paper compares ground movement of building predicted by above analytical method and numerical analysis carried out using PLAXIS 2D finite element software. The buildings that are in the influence zone of excavation are considered. On comparing the results obtained from numerical, analytical and actual settlement values, it is observed that wall deflection from numerical values is about 33% higher than actual value. In addition, the maximum ground settlement obtained from numerical analysis is comparable with the settlement obtained from analytical approach. However, the observed settlements at the building locations are significantly smaller than predicted. This might be due to support provided by the secant pile walls in the opposite side as the stress around the retaining wall will be in a three-dimensional direction. Also, the deep ground water table during the excavation could have helped in reducing the wall movement and the ground settlement.
