Earth pressures applied on drilled shaft retaining walls in expansive clay during cycles of moisture fluctuation

Estimating the earth pressures applied on drilled shaft retaining walls in expansive clays is challenging due to the soil's tendency to shrink and swell under cycles of moisture fluctuation. While empirical suggestions do exist, significant uncertainty exists regarding the effect of volumetric changes of the soil on the earth pressures. In order to investigate this uncertainty, a fully instrumented drilled shaft retaining wall named in the honor of Lymon C. Reese, was constructed in the highly expansive clay of the Taylor formation. Inclinometers and optical fiber strain gauges were installed in three instrumented shafts and time domain reflectrometry sensors were placed within the soil to measure changes in the moisture content. Nearly two years of monitoring data have been obtained which are used to estimate the earth pressure distribution at different moisture conditions. Processing of the raw strain data was required to eliminate the effects of tension cracks and other microscale factors that caused significant variation in the results. Good agreement was obtained between the processed strain and inclinometer data as the deflected shapes predicted from both monitoring elements were similar. Finally, the earth pressure distribution for six dates that represent different moisture conditions of the Taylor clay were plotted and the results of the strain gauge and inclinometer analysis were consistent. A p-y analysis was also conducted to estimate the range of earth pressures applied on the wall. A triangular earth pressure diagram was used as external load above the excavation level and the equivalent fluid pressure was evaluated by matching the deflected shapes generated from the inclinometer data to those predicted by the p-y model. The results were compared to the empirical values that TxDOT uses for design of similar type of walls in expansive clay. Finally, the side shear and temperature effects on the lateral response of the wall were quantified. A differential linear thermal model was used to evaluate the temperature effects and a t-z analysis was conducted to account for the side shear applied on the wall due to volumetric changes of the soil. It is recommended that their combined effect be considered in the design.