Prediction of Ground Surface Settlements Induced by Deep Excavation Using a Closed-Form Solution

Prediction of ground surface settlement adjacent to a deep excavation is of critical importance for protecting neighbouring buildings from potential damage. This paper presents a closed-form solution that was adopted to determine the ground surface settlement induced by deep excavation. The input parameters for predicting ground surface settlement were obtained through measurements of lateral wall movement from two case studies. The validity of this closed-form solution was verified using the finite element method. The results demonstrate that the ground surface settlements obtained from the closed-form solution were consistent with those obtained from the finite element method, indicating that the closed-form solution can serve as a feasible approach to estimating ground surface settlements for different deep excavations. This study also revealed that the lateral wall movement at the top and the maximum lateral wall movement are crucial factors in assessing deep excavation-induced ground surface settlement.