The evaluation of strut forces is critical to ensure the system stability of braced excavation in urban areas. The most common empirical approach to determine the forces in the struts is the empirical apparent pressure diagram (APD) method. Although the importance of soft clay anisotropy on the stability of excavation systems has been demonstrated by various researchers, there are only limited studies on the influence of anisotropy of soft clay on the forces in the struts. In this paper, extensive plane strain finite element studies have been carried out to analyze the strut forces and the apparent earth pressures for braced excavations in anisotropic clay deposits. The NGI-ADP soil constitutive model was adopted in the finite element analyses to assess the influence of various soil properties and wall stiffness properties on the strut forces. Based on the numerical results, modified design pressure envelopes which consider the anisotropic behavior of clays are proposed for flexible and stiff walls.

支撑力的评估对于确保市区支护开挖的系统稳定性至关重要。确定支杆中力的最常见的经验方法是经验表观压力图（APD）方法。尽管软土各向异性对开挖系统稳定性的重要性已经得到了许多研究者的证明，但是关于软土各向异性对支杆力的影响的研究很少。在本文中，已经进行了广泛的平面应变有限元研究，以分析各向异性黏土沉积中支撑开挖的支撑力和表观土压力。在有限元分析中采用了NGI-ADP土壤本构模型，以评估各种土壤特性和墙体刚度特性对支撑力的影响。