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Disclaimer: This tool is intended for use by the APEC Consultancy team for preliminary geotechnical calculations only. The developers assume no liability for design decisions made based on the output of this application. All results must be verified by a qualified geotechnical or structural engineer before use in any project.

Braced-Cut Excavation — Apparent Earth-Pressure Envelope

Peck (1969) apparent earth-pressure envelope, design strut force, and (for clay) Bjerrum & Eide (1956) bottom-heave check for a single-stage braced excavation in homogeneous soil. Per Das & Sivakugan (2019, 9th SI) Ch. 19 (§19.3 envelope, p. 820; §19.5 design, p. 823; §19.7 bottom heave, p. 835) and Bowles (1996, 5e) Ch. 14 Walls for Excavations (§14.2–14.3 pp. 791–803; §14.6 heave).

Scope of this first build: homogeneous single soil profile (sand OR clay), uniform vertical strut spacing, no surcharge, no groundwater pressure differential across the wall. The intent is preliminary sizing — full design should use the Das §19.4 layered-soil envelope and a more rigorous tool (e.g., LPILE or PLAXIS) for final values.

Geometry & Strut Layout

Soil Properties

References & Methodology

  1. Das, B.M. & Sivakugan, N. (2019). Principles of Foundation Engineering, 9th Edition, SI. Cengage Learning. Ch. 19 — Braced Cuts: §19.2 Braced-cut analysis based on general wedge theory (p. 817); §19.3 Pressure envelope for braced-cut design (p. 820, Fig. 19.4); §19.4 Pressure envelope for cuts in layered soil (p. 822); §19.5 Design of various components of a braced cut (p. 823); §19.7 Bottom heave of a cut in clay (p. 835, Eq. 19.18, Fig. 19.18); §19.8 Stability of the bottom of a cut in sand (p. 839); §19.9 Lateral yielding of sheet piles and ground settlement (p. 843).
  2. Bowles, J.E. (1996). Foundation Analysis and Design, 5th Edition. McGraw-Hill. Ch. 14 — Walls for Excavations: §14.1 Construction excavations (p. 785); §14.2 Soil pressures on braced excavation walls (p. 791); §14.3 Conventional design of braced excavation walls (p. 795); §14.4 Estimation of ground loss around excavations (p. 803); §14.6 Instability due to heave of bottom of excavation.
  3. Peck, R.B. (1969). Deep excavations and tunneling in soft ground. Proc. 7th Int. Conf. Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, State-of-the-Art Volume, Mexico City, pp. 225–290. (The original source of the apparent earth-pressure envelopes used here.)
  4. Terzaghi, K. & Peck, R.B. (1967). Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, 2nd Edition. Wiley. (Earlier presentation of similar empirical envelopes.)
  5. Bjerrum, L. & Eide, O. (1956). Stability of strutted excavations in clay. Géotechnique, 6(1), 32–47. (Bottom-heave bearing-capacity formulation used in this calculator.)
  6. Poulos, H.G. & Davis, E.H. (1980). Pile Foundation Analysis and Design. John Wiley & Sons. Ch. 7 — Lateral loading of single piles — theoretical backdrop for soil–wall interaction in deep excavations.