A new empirical approach to estimate temperature effects on strut loads in braced excavation

In deep excavation designs, strut loads play a key role to ensure excavation safety. During the construction, temperature fluctuation inevitably leads to a variation in strut loads. Therefore, how to quantitatively estimate the effects of temperature on strut loads is a matter of concern. In this study, the incremental changes in wall deflection due to temperature fluctuation were assumed to be piecewise linear. Based on the beam-on-elastic-foundation (BEF) model, an empirical approach accounting for the variation in temperature-induced strut loads at all levels was established. This model was further calibrated against a reported case study for a more precise predictive performance.