Forensic Analysis of Failure of Shoring Piles

Abstract

Shoring piles had been provided to support the sides of a deep excavation carried out for the construction of a shopping mall having three basements. A section of the shoring piles failed suddenly when the lowest basement had already been constructed and partial backfilling had been carried out. As the failure occurred when the loads and moments on the shoring piles were lower than what they had earlier been subjected to, the cause/s for the sudden failure were not apparent and nor readily discernable. Therefore, forensic analysis of the failure of the shoring piles was carried out by collecting various data which included construction records, collation of eyewitness accounts and study of post failure conditions. Back analysis of the shoring pile system was carried out by formulation of an alternate method of analysis of the shoring piles. Finally, a hypothesis regarding the failure mechanism was developed and tested for possible inconformity.