Simplified-robust geotechnical design of soldier pile–anchor tieback shoring system for deep excavation

The shoring system that consists of soldier piles and anchor tiebacks is often used in deep excavations in sandy deposits. However, uncertainties often exist in the design of such shoring systems. In this article, a simplified-robust geotechnical design method is proposed to account for these uncertainties in the shoring system design. Specifically, for a given deep excavation, uncertain soil parameters and surcharges are treated as noise factors, and the parameters of soldier piles and tieback anchors are treated as design parameters. Robust design is then implemented as a multiobjective optimization problem, in which the design robustness is sought along with cost efficiency and safety requirements. A trade-off between design robustness and cost efficiency exists and the optimization usually leads to a Pareto front. By applying the knee point concept, the most preferred design that meets the safety requirements and yields the best compromise between design robustness and cost efficiency can be identified on the Pareto front. Improvements made to the existing robust geotechnical design method include an efficient formulation of the design robustness and a new procedure for finding the most preferred design in the design pool. The new simplified-robust geotechnical design method is illustrated with a real-world excavation case study.