Performance of three Berlin-type retaining walls

Abstract

'Berlin-type' concrete retaining walls are often used in Lisbon in the Miocene soils, very representative of this region. The use of these walls, frequently near sensitive and old structures, require at design level accuracy in the prediction of deformations caused by excavation. To validate the calculation models being used, a research program has been undertaken to obtain experimental results from monitoring of 'Berlin-type' retaining walls' excavations.

The first part of this paper deals with the results of monitoring of three 'Berlin-tvpe' concrete walls involving the following measurements: wall horizontal and vertical displacements, anchor load variations and, in a particular case, the strains in the vertical steel profiles.

In the second part of the paper, 2D and 3D finite element calculations were used to predict the behaviour of these structures and their results were compared with those obtained from monitoring.