Probabilistic Inverse Analysis of Excavation-Induced Wall and Ground Responses for Assessing Damage Potential of Adjacent Buildings

This paper presents an approach for the probabilistic inverse analysis of braced excavations based on the maximum likelihood formulation. Here, the soil parameters are updated using the observations of the maximum ground settlement and/or the maximum wall deflection measured in a staged excavation. The updated soil parameters are then used to refine the predicted wall and ground responses in the subsequent excavation stages, as well as to assess the building damage potential at the final excavation stage. Case study shows that the proposed approach is effective in improving the predictions of the excavation-induced wall and ground responses. More-accurate predictions of the wall and ground responses, in turn, lead to a more accurate assessment of the damage potential of buildings adjacent to the excavation. The proposed approach offers an effective means for a probabilistic inverse analysis of braced excavations.