Failure of circular shaft subjected to hydraulic uplift: Field and numerical investigation

A working shaft for pipe-jacking is going to be excavated into a sand stratum with high hydraulic pressure in Guangzhou, China. A newly assembled pre-stressed retaining system has been proposed to support the shaft for its efficiency, safety and sustainability. Full-scale field tests and numerical analysis were conducted to analyze the base failure of the circular shaft with confined water. The failure process of the shaft was observed on site. The construction process of step-by-step excavation of shaft and layer-by-layer assembly of pre-stressed structure was simulated in detail. Simulation results agree well with the phenomenon on site. The base failure modes present that tensile damage generates at the center of the base due to non-uniform uplift and shear failure occurs along the soil-structure interface. The effects of shaft size and confined water head were also discussed. As a result, a critical ratio of diameter to shaft depth is put forward to assess the size effect of circular shaft. A conclusion that the soil strength should be partially considered in anti-inrushing safety factor calculation is drawn by analysis and comparison of various calculation methods. This research provides a reference for the base stability evaluation of similar shaft subjected to hydraulic uplift.