Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

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The effect of arching pressure on a vertical circular shaft

Kyoung-Yul Kim a, Dae-Soo Lee a, Jaeyeon Cho b, Sang-Seom Jeong b,, Sungjune Lee c
a
Korea Electric Power Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea
b
Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, South Korea
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Cheongju University, Cheongju 360-764, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The lateral earth pressure of vertical circular shaft is investigated by using experimental tests and a the-
Received 15 August 2012 oretical analysis. The emphasis was quantifying on the magnitude and distribution of a lateral earth pres-
Received in revised form 15 January 2013 sure measured by three-dimensional arching effect. A framework for determining the earth pressure
Accepted 11 March 2013
distribution on the basis of both centrifuge model and full-scale eld test results is introduced. Through
Available online 13 April 2013
these studies, it is found that the lateral earth pressure decreases within active displacement (dh/H:
0.2  102, dh: horizontal displacement, H: Height of vertical shaft) of wall at deep excavation and the
Keywords:
arching effect is more signicant for deep excavation than for shallow excavation. It is also found that
Vertical circular shaft
Arching effect
the lateral earth pressure acting on a vertical circular shaft considering arching effect is 80% smaller than
Earth pressure that calculated by Rankine theory, and thus represents a signicant improvement in the prediction of
Centrifuge model test realistic earth pressure for vertical circular shaft subjected to arching pressure.
Full-scale eld test 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction retaining wall in sands (Terzaghi, 1943; Steinfeld, 1958; Prater,

In South Korea, an increasing need for underground excavation
and the application of the vertical circular shaft is becoming an
important issue in engineering practice. Here the vertical shaft is
generally embedded in soft or hard rocks through weathered soil
varying thicknesses ranging up to 15 m. Since 1980, a number of
huge excavation projects such as underground space for construct-
ing power stations, subways, high-speed railways, and many life-
line constructions have been performed in urban areas (Jeong
and Seo, 2004). Although there have been considerable advance-
ments in construction techniques involving vertical shaft, it is still
very important for tunnel engineers to control the lateral earth
pressure. Additionally, proper estimation of earth pressures is a
key factor in design of vertical shafts. Because of three dimensional
arching effects, i.e. convex arching and/or inverted arching, the
earth pressure acting on a circular type of vertical shaft is less than
other types. Thus, the circular vertical shaft is generally used.
Much work has been done to study the lateral earth pressure
acting on a rigid wall by many researchers. Terzaghi (1920) re-
ported fundamental studies on characteristics of earth pressure
acting on retaining wall. Berezantzev (1958) reported that the ac-
tive earth pressure acting on a gravel-backlled cylindrical retain-
ing wall, however it could not consider the earth pressure changes
with varying wall shapes. In addition, a few previous studies have
been performed for the earth pressure acting on a cylindrical
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 19 362 4074.
E-mail address: soj9081@yonsei.ac.kr (S.-S. Jeong).
1977). Moreover, recent studies by Coates (1981) determined that
the earth pressure acting on a vertical shaft lining. Also, Handy
(1983) and Wang (2000) reported that the friction between backll
and the retaining wall was caused by earth pressure in a curved
failure surface. However, most of previous studies were based on
two-dimensional plain strain condition and thus, it may not repre-
sent the behavior of actual vertical shaft which does not take into
account the actual lateral earth pressure acting on a vertical circu-
lar shaft.
To overcome this limitation, some research has been performed
by centrifuge model test for a vertical circular structure. Konig
et al., (1991) conducted a test to investigate the three-dimensional
earth pressure distribution, and Toyosawa et al., (2006) analyzed
lateral earth pressure distribution for plane retaining wall using a
centrifuge model test.
Handy (1983) analyzed soil arching action behind retaining
walls, and Wang and Yen (1973) carried out this analysis for slopes.
Nakai et al. (1997) performed a series of physical model tests under
a 1 g conditions and carried out numerical analysis of these tests to
investigate the arching effect. They found that the results obtained
from the model tests were in good agreement with those obtained
from the numerical analysis. Recently, Kim et al. (2009) reported
that the earth pressure was reduced by horizontal/vertical three-
dimensional arching effect. However, these studies do not predict
the characteristics of the earth pressure considering arching effect
at each excavation stage.
As discussed above, since Terzaghi (1920) started to examine
the effect of lateral earth pressure acting on a plane wall, much

0886-7798/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2013.03.001
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021 11

work has been done in the area of soilstructure interaction of

plane retaining walls. Relatively little work has been done on ex-
ible and circular walls such as vertical shaft, and hardly anything
on earth pressure distribution of vertical circular shaft. Soil-circu-
lar wall behavior is complicate since many complex construction
sequences, different soil conditions, initial conditions, and arching
effect are involved. Additionally, previous studies are not applica-
ble to the multi-layered and/or c/ soils.
The objective of this study is to investigate the actual magni-
tude and distribution of lateral earth pressure acting on the vertical
circular shaft considering the three-dimensional arching effect in
weathered soil. In order to achieve the objective, new theoretical
method is suggested for estimating the earth pressure in multi-lay-
ered c/ soils. Comparisons are made between the soil-vertical
shaft behavior observed by centrifuge test and full-scale eld tests
and that computed by the theoretical methods.

2. Theoretical earth pressure formula of vertical circular shaft

The behavior of a vertical shaft is affected and near the surface (a) Mode of yielding (Wong and Kaiser, 1988)
dominated by gravitational forces (Wong and Kaiser, 1988). It is a
truly three-dimensional problem and all three stress components
(r0t , r0m , r0r ). The stress concentrations near a vertical shaft would
cause yielding due to the stress difference between vertical (r0m )
and radial (r0r ) around a shaft (Fig. 1a). In order to accurately deter-
mine the lateral earth pressure on a vertical shaft, it is necessary to
consider an accurate shape for the slip surface in the formulation
for the earth pressure. In this study, it is assumed that the slip sur-
face for a vertical shaft is plane and slope at an angle of b = 45 + //
2 is used to calculate the earth pressure on the shaft (Fig. 1b).
The three-dimensional earth pressure acting on a vertical circu-
lar shaft in c/ soil is calculated by considering convex (lateral
direction) and inverted (vertical direction) arching effect (Fig. 2).
A comprehensive study of earth pressure acting on vertical shaft
has been reported by Kim et al. (2009). Therefore, only the coef-
cient of tangential and radial earth pressure will be briey summa-
rized here.

2.1. The coefcient of tangential earth pressure

The coefcient of tangential earth pressure (k) is dened to be

(b) Slip surface
the ratio of tangential stress to vertical stress. The earth pressure
on vertical shafts decreases with the increase of tangential stress Fig. 1. Behavior of the soil around vertical circular shaft: (a) mode of yielding and
acting on the failure surface, thus with increase of k value. Wong (b) slip surface.
and Kaiser (1988) suggested that k value is not 1.0 at elastic state;
but will reach 1.0 at plastic state. In this study, k is assumed to be
1 sin / (Lee et al., 2007). Z 2p Z 2p   Z 2p
dh cos b
Nw R dh dz 2r0t sin r dz sf r R dh dz
0 0 2 0 sin b
2.2. The coefcient of tangential earth pressure Z 2p
cos90  b
Nf r R dh dz 2
The coefcient of radial earth pressure is dened as the ratio of 0 sin b
radial stress to vertical stress. Rankine (1857) suggested the coef-
cient of active earth pressure (Ka) without considering wall friction
angle (d). Paik and Salgado (2003) assumed miner principle stress In Eq. (2), Nw is the lateral stress acting on wall surface of ele-
direction is changing in concave shape, such as elliptic, catenary ment and is same as rh, and sf is dened as shear strength at failure
and parabolic due to ctional resistances of wall, and the coef- surface. Nw and r0t will be expressed as
cient of earth pressure (Kwa) as follows: Nw r0h kwa r0m 3
2 2
3N cos h sin h
kwa 1 r0t 1  sin /r0m 4
3N  N  1 cos2 h
 p
where N tan2 45 /=2; h tan1
N1 N12 4N tan2 d
, d is the where rm is the vertical stress at certain depth z. If dh is very small,
0
2tand
wall friction angle (). then Eq. (5) can be obtained by substituting Eqs. (3) and (4) into Eq.
As shown in Fig. 3, the equilibrium condition of horizontal force (2):
acting on the differential soil element gives Rkwa r0m r1  sin /r0m c cos b
r R tan b
sin b
Nf  5
rR tan b  tan /
12 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

(a) Lateral arching pressure

(b) Vertical arching pressure

Fig. 2. Lateral and vertical arching effect of vertical circular shaft: (a) lateral arching pressure and (b) vertical arching pressure.

  
From Fig. 3a, the equilibrium of vertical stress gives 2p 1 1 tan b  tan /
T c cw cR r 1
A tan b tan b  tan /
r0m A A dzc r0m drm A 2pRsw dz 2pr Rfsf sin b
dz
N f sin90  bg 6   
sin b 2p 1 tan b  tan /
S kwa R tan d kwa R kr
A tan b  tan /
where A is the area of differential soil element, sf is the shear
strength at failure surface, and sw is the shear strength at wall
surface. where c is the soil unit weight (kN/m3), / is the soil friction angle
The rst order differential Eq. (7) can be obtained by substitut- (), c is the cohesion factor (kPa), R is the radius of vertical circular
ing Eq. (5) into Eq. (6). shaft (m), r is the width of plastic region in certain depth (m), A is
the horizontal area of loose area (m2), b is the angle of slip surface
dr0m
Sr0m T 7 (45 + //2), and q is the surcharge load.
dz Therefore, the total soil pressure (pi) can be expressed as
Eq. (7) can be solved with the boundary condition, r0m 0 when
z = 0. Then, r0m is
Pi kwa r0m 9
 
T sz T
r0m q e 8
S S
where kwa is a coefcient of radial earth pressure and r0m is the ver-
For parameter T and S can be written as tical effective overburden pressure.
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021 13

(a) Section view

(b) 3D view
Fig. 3. Equilibrium of stress at soil: (a) section view and (b) 3D view.

3. Centrifuge model test
3.1. Testing program
A series of centrifuge model tests were performed to investigate
the soil pressure of vertical circular shaft in sand. Two model tests
were performed on 1/75th scale models to analyze characteristics
of earth pressure acting on the vertical circular shaft, as summa-
rized in Table 1. The model tests were performed at a radial accel-
eration of 75g.
Model vertical shaft was made of aluminum alloy with a hollow
circular section, 200 mm embedded length, and 80 mm outer
diameter (Fig 4b). It was equivalent to reinforced concrete vertical
shaft of length 15 m, and outer diameter 6 m at prototype scale. To
investigate the lateral earth pressure at each excavation stage, test
model was divided two sections.
The soil used in the model test had a specic gravity (Gs) of 2.65
and was classied as SP in the Unied Soil Classication System.
The sand layer was prepared from the sand hopper to form a uni-
formly dense sand bed with 8182% relative density approxi-
mately. Table 2 presents the material properties used in the
centrifuge models. To observe the plastic region in soil sample, a
different color was adopted at each soil layer.
After completing sample preparation, the sample box was
mounted on the platform of the centrifuge. The lateral earth
pressure acting on the vertical shaft was monitored during the
14 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

Table 1
Centrifuge model tests.

Soil Vertical shaft

3
c (kN/m ) / () Water content (%) G (kPa) Diameter (cm) H (cm) H/D
Test 1 12.66 36.95 2.0 75 8.0 20.0 2.5
Test 2 12.65 36.95 2.0 75 8.0 20.0 2.5

(a) Soil sample box (b) Model vertical shaft (c) Sand hopper
Fig. 4. Testing apparatus: (a) Soil sample box, (b) model vertical shaft and (c) sand hopper.

Table 2 geotechnical centrifuge was manufactured by Actidyn company

Properties of the test soil. in France and corresponds to an Actidyn system C65-2, with a plat-
D10 (mm) 0.091 form radius of 3.0 m and a maximum capacity of 120 g ton. The
D20 (mm) 0.098 specication of DICTs centrifuge is summarized in Table 3.
D60 (mm) 0.140 A small soil sample box 700 mm long, 400 mm wide, and
D90 (mm) 0.175
Coefcient of uniformity, Cu 1.53
200 mm high was made with a steel frame (Fig. 4a). Model vertical
Specic gravity, Gs 2.65 shaft was made of aluminum alloy with a hollow circular section,
Unied soil classication system SP 400 mm embedded length, 20 mm outer diameter, and 3 mm
thickness. They are equivalent to reinforced concrete piles of
length 15 m, outer diameter 6 m at prototype scale.
A sand hopper was designed to form a uniform soil bed with the
excavation. To simulate the excavation step, incremental active required density (Fig. 4c). It is automatically controlled by a com-
wall displacement (dh/H, dh: horizontal displacement, H: Height puter system according to the traveling velocity of the hopper and
of vertical shaft) was chosen to be 1.0 mm/140 s using a multi-gear the height and quantity of pluviation.
motor. Terzaghi (1920) suggested that active earth pressure occurs A variety of instrumentations were installed to monitor dis-
at about 0.1%H of active wall displacement. This value is applicable placements and earth pressures during the testing. The displace-
to 15 mm wall displacement in this test. ment of vertical shaft wall was measured by two linear variable
differential transformers (LVDTs) located on both sides of the shaft
3.2. Testing apparatus surface shown in Fig. 5. Pre-calibrated Kyowa earth pressure trans-
ducers were installed on the external surface of vertical cylinder
The geotechnical centrifuge used in this study was located at wall to measure the lateral earth pressures acting on the vertical
Daewoo Institute of Construction Technology (DICT). DICTs shaft, and their locations in the model are also shown in Fig. 5.

Table 3
Main properties of geotechnical centrifuge equipment.

Centrifuge radius Platform radius (m) 3.0

Nominal radius (m) 2.7
Usable payload dimension Platform width (m) 0.8
Nominal depth (m) 1.0
Usable height (m) 0.8
Performance Maximum payload (kN) 12
Acceleration at max. payload (g) 100
Acceleration range (g) 10230
Speed range (rpm) 25265
Electrical slipring Signal, power, and video lines 46, 12, 2
Rotary joint Oil 20 MPa working pressure Each two ports
Water 2 MPa working pressure
Air
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021 15

(a) Section view

(b) Plan view

(c) Vertical circular shaft model

Fig. 5. Sectional and plan views of the soil sample box and vertical shaft model.

3.3. Test results and discussion according to the relevant scaling relationships (Schoeld, 1980).
The validation of initial condition (displacement of vertical
Some typical results from centrifuge model tests are presented shaft = 0) for earth pressure was examined by a comparison with
here. The data are presented in terms of prototype units scaled up a K0 condition. Fig. 6a and b shows a comparison of the measured
16 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

Lateral earth pressure (kPa) 80

0 20 40 60 80
0
K0=0.39

Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

60
0mm

40
Depth (m)

20

12

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
-2
16 h/H (x10 )
(a) Test 1 (a) Upper section
Lateral earth pressure (kPa)
80
0 20 40 60 80
AP1
0 AP2
K0=0.39 AP3
Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

0mm 60 AP4
AP5
4 AP6
AP7
AP8
40
Depth (m)

20

12

16
(b) Test 2
Fig. 6. Comparison of measured and calculated earth pressure at rest (at acceler-
ation 75g).
and calculated earth pressures. It is shown that agreement be-
tween the K0 and initial condition of test is generally good (coef-
cient of determination, R2 = 0.96, 0.99).
Figs. 7 and 8 show the results from two typical tests with mea-
sured earth pressure under the condition of active wall displace-
ment. As shown in Figs. 7a and 8a, it is noted that the lateral
earth pressure on upper section of the vertical shaft (AP1AP4)
at rst excavation step gradually decreases, until a wall displace-
ment is reached at about 0.2. This curve demonstrated the reduc-
tions in lateral earth pressure with gradual increase of wall
displacement. When the active wall displacement (dh/H:
0.2  102) is occurred, the earth pressure was about 30% (AP4) de-
creases in initial earth pressure. At this time, the earth pressure on
lower section (AP5AP8) of vertical shaft is measured in a constant.
In the second excavation step, where the earth pressure in lower
section of the vertical shaft, large reductions of earth pressure
are occurred in Figs. 7b and 8b. When the active wall displacement
(dh/H: 0.2  102) is occurred, the earth pressure was about 80%
(AP8) decreases of initial earth pressure. Additionally, an earth
pressure acting on the upper part (AP1AP4) of vertical shaft tends
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
-2
h/H (x10 )
(b) Lower section
Fig. 7. Earth pressure distributions in Test 1: (a) upper section and (b) lower
section.
to increase as the active displacement of lower part increases. Fur-
thermore, an increase of lateral earth pressure in the active dis-
placement from 0 to 0.2 results in about 1030%. Similar
magnitude of earth pressure as initial condition (before the rst
excavation) is measured when the active wall displacement was
increased from 0 to 0.6.
Fig. 9 shows the distribution of plastic deformation in soil sam-
ple. It is noted that plastic region in the soil sample is about 1D
(D = diameter of vertical shaft) and then, the settlement of soil
sample was about 13 mm (97.5 cm in full scale). Fig. 10 shows a
comparison of the test result and theoretical solution proposed
by Kim et al. (2009). All the measured data have a relatively smal-
ler earth pressure than the result of the proposed solution. How-
ever, earth pressure at the bottom, 14 m in depth, occurred
relatively high, because soil container used in test is the particu-
larly strong steel structure, earth pressure caused by soil loosening
could not be dissipated at the bottom section. In most of previous
studies, it is veried that the overall lateral earth pressure acting
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021 17

80 Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

0 20 40 60 80
0
Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

K0=0.39
60 0mm (Test1)
theory (Kim)
4 h/B=0.2x10 2 (Test1)
h/B=0.2x10 2 (Test2)
40

Depth (m)
8

20

12

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
h/H (x10-2 ) 16
(a) Upper section Fig. 10. Comparison of earth pressure distributions.
80
on the vertical circular shaft was reduced approximately 80% com-
AP1
AP2 pared with the initial condition.
AP3 From the test results, it is note that the lateral earth pressure at
Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

AP4 deep depth decreased within active displacement (dh/H:

60 0.2  102), beyond which it continue to increase toward the initial
AP5
AP6 condition as displacement increase. This nding is similar from
AP7 what Tatiana and Mohamed (2010) discussed about active dis-
AP8 placement for a wall. On the other hand, test vertical shaft is exca-
40 vated into a relatively shallow excavation, there is very little
reduction of earth pressure. The reason for this behavioral differ-
ence between deep and shallow excavation step is explained by
the fact that the weight re-distribution caused by the arching effect
20 will produce more pressure reduction in the deep depth than shal-
low depth. Conclusively, the arching effect is generally more signif-
icant for deep excavation than for shallow excavation and the
observed values by the centrifuge model have a smaller earth pres-
0 sure when compared with the calculated by existing method (Kim
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 et al., 2009).

h/H (x10 - 2 )
4. Field test
(b) Lower section
Full-scale eld test was conducted at the test site in order to
Fig. 8. Earth pressure distributions in Test 2: (a) upper section and (b) lower
section.
investigate the lateral earth pressure acting on vertical circular
shafts. This test was performed to provide a basis for a design

Fig. 9. Failure surface (model height 200 mm, 75 g).

18 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

(a) Configuration of test shaft

(b) Shaft embedment

Fig. 11. Conguration of test shaft and shaft embedment.

guideline that would be applicable to a vertical shaft installed in three-dimensional arching effect. Special attention is given to the
weathered soils. Based on the soil condition, the applicable limiting analyzing lateral earth pressure acting on full-scale vertical shaft
depth of vertical shaft is conned as up to 15 m to identify the (Fig. 11a) as excavation proceeds.
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021 19

Table 4
Summary of eld and laboratory test results.

Soil Depth (m) N value Gs W.C. (%) E (MPa) / () c (kPa) Sieve analysis (%)
#4 #10 #40 #100 #200
Top soil 06.2 17/3050/18 2.59 8.3 20.96 98.0 82.1 23.1 8.7 5.9
Weathered soil 6.213.1 16/3050/10 2.62 18.3 23.3 25.31 126.4 99.1 84.5 37.7 15.9 8.6
Weathered rock 13.123.6 50/150/0 33.8 (66.9) 31.8 294.0
Soft rock 23.625.5

Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

0 20 40 60 80 100
0
Measured
Theory (Kim)
2 Rankine

4
Depth (m)

8
Fig. 13. Stress applied on circular cylinder.

10
to determine the particle size distribution, water content in rela-
tion to Atterberg limits.
12 A generalized soil prole for this site is presented in Fig. 11b.
The soil prole near the surface consists of layers of top soil,
14 weathered soil and weathered rock underlain by soft rock. The
water table was located 9.7 m below the natural ground surface
(a) P-1 during the tests. The surface soils consist of poorly graded sand
Lateral earth pressure (kPa) and silt sand classied as SP or SM according to the Unied Soil
0 20 40 60 80 100
Classication System (USCS). The undrained shear strength was
typically 126.4294 kPa. The underlying weathered soil layer con-
0
Measured sists of a well graded residual soil classied as SW or SM (USCS).
Theory (Kim) Table 4 shows the summary of eld and laboratory test results.
2 Rankine
4.2. Test program and setup
4
A schematic representation of an instrumented vertical shaft is
also shown in Fig. 11b. The circular shaft had an outer diameter of
Depth (m)

6
8 hoe shovel. The reinforcing structure consisted of 12 H-pile
10
12
14
(b) P-2
Fig. 12. Measured and calculated earth pressure: (a) P-1 and (b) P-2.
4.1. Geotechnical conditions at test site
A comprehensive geotechnical investigation was carried out to
dene the soil prole and properties at the test site as accurately
as possible. The in situ eld tests included the standard penetration
test (SPT), pressure meter testing (PMT) and borehole shear test.
Undisturbed soil samples were retrieved for laboratory testing
from the boring. Relatively disturbed specimens were also re-
trieved from the SPT sampler. Laboratory testing was performed
6 m and a wall thickness of 80 mm. The depth of the shaft below
ground level was 13.6 m. Excavation was performed by the back-
(300  200  9  14 mm) with a ring wale (300  200  9 
14 mm). During the construction of H-pile, S.G.R. (Space Grouting
Rocket) method was adopted for the stability of the soil.
Many instrumentation was used to monitor the response of the
vertical shaft-soil system. Automated equipment including soil
pressure gauge, vibrating wire-stress meter, inclination, void water
pressure and ground water level measurement device were in-
stalled. Earth pressure was measured at 1 m below the top of
H-pile using 10 soil pressure gauges, which were attached at two
locations (P-1 and P-2). Two vibrating wire-stress meter was
installed along the ring wales to measure the earth pressure. The
gauges, shown in Fig. 11, were sealed with a JIG to prevent
mechanical damage. Data from the various sensors were collected
simultaneously using a computer controlled data acquisition
system.
4.3. Test results and discussion
The observed lateral earth pressures are compared with the
predicted values of theoretical methods. Fig. 12a and b shows
20 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021

Lateral earth pressure (kPa) Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
0 0
Converted Measured (P-1)
Theory (Kim) Measured (P-2)
2 Rankine 2 Converted (P-1)
Converted (P-2)
Theory (Kim)
4 4
Rankine
Depth (m)

Depth (m)
6 6

8 8

10 10

12 12

14 14
(a) P-1 Fig. 15. Comparison of test result for vertical circular shaft.

Lateral earth pressure (kPa)

0 20 40 60 80 100 2pi R 2F 10
0
Converted where pi is the soil pressure, R is the radius of vertical shaft, F is the
Theory (Kim) ring beam axial stress. In this analysis (+) stress value means active
2 Rankine
earth pressure and () value means passive earth pressure.
Fig. 14 shows the converted and predicted earth pressures dis-
4 tribution. The calculated results of existing method (Kim et al.,
2009) closely approach the converted data from the measured
Depth (m)

6 one. Although a reasonably good agreement between the theoret-

8 measured values at the same depth. In this case, it is also shown
10
12
14
(b) P-2
Fig. 14. Converted and calculated earth pressure: (a) P-1 and (b) P-2.
representatively the predicted and measured earth pressure at two
different locations (P-1 and P-2). A reasonably good agreement
between the measured ones and the solution presented by the
existing theories are obtained. In addition, maximum lateral earth
pressure acting on the vertical shaft occurred within the depth of
shaft diameter below the ground level. However, the calculated
results by Rankine theory have a relatively 80% lager earth pres-
sure as the depth increased than the results of previous theory
(Kim et al., 2009) and measured one.
These results clearly demonstrate that the distribution pattern
of the earth pressure acting on the vertical shaft is signicantly
dominated by three-dimensional arching effect. Therefore, the
Rankine theory may not reect the nature of the arching effect of
soil for the general case, and thus it requires validation before
being used in practice.
As mentioned above, two vibrating wire-stress meter was in-
stalled along the ring wales to investigate the earth pressure acting
on the vertical shaft. As shown in Fig. 13, the ring wale axial stress
as pressure acting on the circular cylinder can be converted to
earth pressure. The earth pressure is calculated from the following
equation;
ical and the measured one was obtained, the existing method
(Kim et al., 2009) has a larger lateral earth pressure those of the
that maximum lateral earth pressure acting on the vertical shaft
occurred within the depth of 46 m below the ground level. How-
ever, the calculated results by Rankine theory have a signicantly
70% lager lateral earth pressure at the deep depth than the results
of previous theory (Kim et al., 2009) and converted one. The three-
dimensional arching effect is generally more signicant for deep
depth than for shallow depth and the previous method considering
arching effect has a considerably smaller earth pressure when
compared with the results by Rankine theory.
Fig. 15 shows the lateral earth pressure distributions obtained
from the measured and predicted data. It is shown that the predic-
tions by considering three-dimensional arching effect are in good
agreement with the general trend observed by eld measurements
and has a considerably smaller earth pressure than the earth pres-
sure calculated by the Rankine theory. This is because the Rankine
theory based on the two-dimensional plane stress ignores three-
dimensional arching effect and, thus, overestimates the lateral
earth pressure with increasing depth. This clearly demonstrates
that for vertical circular shaft, there exists three-dimensional
arching effect, so that this set of prediction and measured results
provides the reducing of lateral earth pressure.
4.4. Reduction ratio of lateral earth pressure
In the present design of vertical shaft, geotechnical engineers
have traditionally calculated the active earth pressure against
walls using Rankine theory. It was assumed that the distribution
of active earth pressure exerted against the wall is triangular. How-
ever, many experimental results (Tsagareli, 1965; Matsuo et al.,
1978; Fang and Ishibashi, 1986) show that the distribution of
active pressure acting on a wall depends on the mode of wall
 K.-Y. Kim et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 1021
Table 5
Summary of Rf values for vertical circular shaft.
Soil Values
c/ soil Measured earth pressure (kPa)
Rankine earth pressure (kPa)
Rf
movement and is non-linear, different from the assumption made
by Rankine. The non-linearity of the active earth pressure distribu-
tion results from arching effects (Handy, 1983). Especially, proper
estimation of earth pressures is a key factor in design of vertical
circular shafts. Because of three dimensional arching effects, i.e.
convex arching and/or inverted arching, the earth pressure acting
on a circular type of vertical shaft is less than other types. This sec-
tion presents a correlation between Rankine earth pressure and re-
duced lateral earth pressure based on the results of full-scale eld
test performed in this study.
As mentioned above, in the case of the vertical circular shaft,
there is no criterion to evaluate earth pressure for vertical shaft.
Therefore, the measured versus the predicted by Rankine theory
were compared using an Rf value (reduction factor) dened as
Predicted earth pressure  Measured earth pressure
Rf
Predicted earth pressure
 100%
A conservative Rf value ranges from 0% to 100% and Table 5
summarizes the magnitude of Rf with varying excavation depths
(z/D). Based on the Rf value results of Table 5, it is found that the
Rf values show a signicant reduction in the prediction of real earth
pressure.
5. Conclusions
The main objective of this study was to investigate a lateral
earth pressure acting on a vertical circular shaft embedded in
weathered soil. A limited study of the response of centrifuge and
eld tests was performed to examine the three-dimensional arch-
ing effect for lateral earth pressure. When applied to vertical circu-
lar shaft constructed in weathered soil, comparative studies have
clearly demonstrated the important arching effect of vertical circu-
lar shaft. Based on the ndings of this study, the following conclu-
sions can be drawn:
1. The test results show that the magnitude and distribution of a
lateral earth pressure acting on a vertical circular shaft is not
linear with increasing excavation depth. Experimental observa-
tions conrm that more realistic distribution of lateral earth
pressure is introduced for a vertical shaft embedded in weath-
ered soil.
2. Through a comparison of theoretical calculation and full-scale
test with eld measurements, it is found that for test shaft a
coupled three-dimensional arching effect is important. The lat-
eral earth pressure acting on the vertical circular shaft was
maximum 80% reduction in a certain depth. Therefore, a com-
monly used method like the Rankine equation for calculating
the lateral pressure can substantially overestimate the lateral
pressure in real situations.
21
z/D
0.2 0.5 0.7 1 1.7
18.16 24.26 19.80 13.71 10.89
21.09 37.5 45.7 51.56 70.31
13.89 35.31 56.67 73.41 84.5
3. Based on Rf value, the arching effect is generally more signi-
cant for deep excavation depth than for shallow excavation
depth and the measured data has a smaller earth pressure when
compared with the results by existing theories. When test shaft
were excavated into a relatively shallow depth, there was very
little arching effect caused by small active earth pressure acting
on vertical shaft and weight re-distribution.
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