3.3 Parametric Study

A series of parametric study was carried out to look into a refined apparent pressure diagram for braced excavations in soft clay involving diaphragm wall by Chang and Wong（1996）.Figure 3.10 shows the soil profile and geometry adopted.The effects on the strut force from factors such as soil modulus，undrained shear strength（cu）profile，wall stiffness（EI），preloading level，thickness to hard stratum（T），excavation width（B），and number of strut levels are studied.More details can be found in their literature“Apparent pressure diagram for braced excavations in soft clay with diaphragm wall”，and the following section presents the main findings.

Figure 3.10 Soil profile and geometry adopted for parametric study（Chang and Wong，1996）