Stress Cutoff Solution
Stress Cutoff Solution
(OP)
30 ft deep excavation is proposed for mat foundation of 50-story highrise right next to 100 years old 4-story stone building with 18" wide stone foundation, 7 ft below grade. Rock is 20 ft below the excavation (50 ft below ground). To minimize settlement of the stone building, geotechnical engineer requires rigid excavation support system that extends to rock that provide stress cutoff and will not cause lateral or vertical settlement of the stone building foundations. I would think underpinning all the way to rock and provide temporary tiebacks with required dewatering and shoring which may be difficult given the high permeability of the material below water table. Secant shaft wall with tiebacks which may serve as wall for the highrise. would the wall be able to function properly and handle the high rise type vertical load and provide lateral support for the old building footings. The mat of the highrise is 15 ft thick and will be poured about 6-12" off the property line.
PS. caissons for the highrise was out of the window.
PS. caissons for the highrise was out of the window.





RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
oldestguy - indeed it is difficult. I won't come to this forum with simple problems.
aeoliantexan - the 80 years old lady who owns the old house ain't going anywhere, oh and the building is marked historic.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
Why are caissons for the highrise out of the window?
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
BigHarvey - I don't believe that the old building is going to take a lot of movement before walls start to crack. I will dig more into the jet grouting solution and find some info about the expected horizontal deflection of that system. I think monitoring program is essential during construction.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=418577
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
Anyway, I can tell one thing: Careful with jet grouting.
Jet grouting pressure may cause enormous movements. You cannot believe how much lateral movements it caused on a diaphragm wall, when we apply jet grouts to passive side of diaphragm walls, even without any excavation.
Also, you know that we use jet grouts to lift differential settled buildings.
So, any under-studied jet grout may effect the building even without any excavation. Literature does not contain extensive studies about that issue. If you will go with jet grouts, I can give more information.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
bdbd, can you share info about lateral movements generated by jet grouting on D walls ? It's an interesting subjecthttp://www.eng-tips.com/.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
They may want to reconsider when they find out how much it is going to cost to build a retaining structure adjacent to the existing building.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
Underpinning would not necessarily need to extend the extra 20 feet to bedrock. That would be very expensive. Design the underpinning to bear on suitable soil at or slightly below excavation subgrade. Dewatering will be very important and should be implemented prior to any underpinning or drilling for soldier beams. Soldier beam walls are considered flexible support systems. Therefore, they are often (usually?) not recommended for supporting closely adjacent buildings and underpinning is used. However, if you can't underpin, maybe because the adjacent owner will not let you on his property, you may have no reasonable option but to design an extra stiff soldier beam wall. The extra stiffness should help minimize (but probably not eliminate) movement and damage. Remember, even if you underpin the building, there may still typically be from 0 to possibly 1/2 inch (I edited "12 inches" typo) of settlement.
If the underpinning will bear on soil with much better bearing capacity than the soil under the original footings, you may not need as much bearing area and possibly spaced out underpinning piers can be used with lagging between. If the soil at the new excavation depth is similar to or worse than the original bearing soils, you will need equal or better bearing area for the underpinning. If the wall to be underpinned is a jointly owned party wall, you are allowed to underpin it but you still will need permission to install tieback anchors across the property line. For sheeting or underpinning, you may need to internally brace the support wall if the adjacent owner does not give a temporary underground easement for installing tiebacks across the property line.
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
PEinc - when you say lagging do you refer to, for example, a steel beam to be placed directly beneath the existing footing and then propped with piers beneath? One issue we had with small job underpinning job was that the contractor was ready to prop piers directly beneath an existing old un-reinforced concrete footing with checking that the footing could span between the micro piles. Subsequently we installed a beam support the concrete footing.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
I would imagine that a post tension, cast in place beam would be the least desirable option. How would the fibers be tensioned considering there is an existing footing on top of the proposed beam?
PEinc - On a side note, and a risk of hijacking the existing thread (which i apologize for), is there an aspects of your work that you would consider needing further investigation? I am doing a masters at the minute and finding it difficult to nail down a topic. A previous idea i had got kicked to the kerb.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
Post-tensioned, interpier beams are expensive to install; BUT, a lot of time and money can be saved if you can eliminate some underpinning piers. You will need very good bearing (rock?) at the bottom of widely spaced underpinning piers.
Topic? How about investigating the amount and rate of shrinkage for concrete and drypack in underpinning piers? Compressive strength of properly mixed and installed drypack in its first 12 and 24 hours after placement?
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
EireChch - you are welcomed and also encouraged to use any of my posts to bring in interesting topics the enriches the discussion.
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PEinc - this is definitely a dumb question, but how do they actually get the piers directly underneath the existing footing? I understand in conventional underpinning for small depths the concrete is installed in a hit and miss manner so that only small parts are undermined at a time. But those piers look very long (and sqaure?). How does the excavation for the pier remain stable, what rig is used to excavate and how does it get under the footing? Also what is the point in post tensioning, would conventional RC drypacked not do the same thing? Similarly, if micropiles were used to underpin, how can they be installed under the footing?
Sorry for the long list of silly questions, but interesting stuff!
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
BowlingDanish, checkout my web site for information on underpinning. Underpinning piers are hand excavated as vertical, rectangular shafts under the existing foundations. Check out my web site presentation on Causes of Building Collapses in Philadelphia. The segmental post-tensioned beam is installed in short sections so that you do not undermine too much of the existing wall footing at one time. Then, the short segments need to be post-tensioned into a continuous lintel beam that will bear on underpinning piers. Micropiles are not installed under the existing footings. This would required too large a hole beneath the footing to fit the drill rig. Micropiles are usually installed through the existing footing or foundation wall or adjacent to the foundation and then are attached. Search for info on "jacked pile underpinning." While not the same as micropiles, this will give you an idea of the trouble you will need to go through to get piles under an existing footing.
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RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
I don't think it would be 3,600 psf because you remove 30 ft of soil but pour 15 ft concrete mat so most likely to be 1.8 ksf and ok say 13.2 ksf! I am sure final loads will get higher. thinking about the micropile idea you have discussed above, it seems reasonable to extend the continuous underpinning down to some level and pick up the load with micropile but oh boy you need to make sure the micropiles don't pick up any load from the mat or they will snap like a toothpick.
RE: Stress Cutoff Solution
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