10NCEE

Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Frontiers of Earthquake Engineering
July 21-25, 2014
Anchorage, Alaska

SLURRY WALLS FOR PERMANENT

LATERAL RESISTANCE IN ZONES OF
HIGH SEISMICITY
Sitotaw Y. Fantaye, P.E.1, Lisa Papandrea, P.E.2, and Jesse Richins, P.E.,
G.E.3
ABSTRACT
Slurry wall construction is commonly used for excavation support, particularly in areas where a
hydraulic barrier is needed. However, in areas of high seismicity where significant lateral loads
must be resisted, slurry walls are typically used for temporary excavation support only. Interior
systems, such as shear walls, moment frames, cross bracing, or a combination of these systems,
are typically added for permanent lateral support and load distribution. This paper presents a
case study in which an innovative engineered shear connector was used to provide in-plane shear
capacity between slurry wall joints for a successfully constructed buttress wall at the Vehicle
Security Center, World Trade Center, New York. The challenging site was constrained with
limited space and required the excavation support wall to resist typical earth and hydrostatic
pressures as well as the additional lateral loads of an adjacent historic highrise. This paper will
detail the design of the wall, numerical modeling of wall performance and stresses, and
construction challenges. In addition, a hypothetical design of a structural slurry wall in a zone of
high seismicity was evaluated as an example of applying this technology in areas with high
seismic loads. Future applications of this technology should be considered in areas of high
seismicity to integrate slurry wall excavation support into the permanent lateral support system
of deep excavations to avoid costly secondary support systems.

Senior Associate, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. sfantaye@mrce.com
Structural Engineer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. lpapandrea@mrce.com
3
Supervising Engineer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. jrichins@mrce.com
2

Fantaye, Sitotaw, Y., Papandrea, Lisa, Richins, Jesse. Slurry Walls for Permanent Lateral Resistance in Zones of
High Seismicity. Proceedings of the 10th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute, Anchorage, AK, 2014.

Slurry Walls for Permanent Lateral Resistance in Zones of High

Seismicity
Sitotaw Y. Fantaye, P.E. 1, Lisa Papandrea, P.E.2 and Jesse Richins, P.E., G.E.3

ABSTRACT
Slurry wall construction is commonly used for excavation support, particularly in areas where a
hydraulic barrier is needed. However, in areas of high seismicity where significant lateral loads
must be resisted, slurry walls are typically used for temporary excavation support only. Interior
systems, such as shear walls, moment frames, cross bracing, or a combination of these systems,
are typically added for permanent lateral support and load distribution. This paper presents a case
study in which an innovative engineered shear connector was used to provide in-plane shear
capacity between slurry wall joints for a successfully constructed buttress wall at the Vehicle
Security Center, World Trade Center, New York. The challenging site was constrained with
limited space and required the excavation support wall to resist typical earth and hydrostatic
pressures as well as the additional lateral loads of an adjacent historic highrise. This paper will
detail the design of the wall, numerical modeling of wall performance and stresses, and
construction challenges. In addition, a hypothetical design of a structural slurry wall in a zone of
high seismicity was evaluated as an example of applying this technology in areas with high
seismic loads. Future applications of this technology should be considered in areas of high
seismicity to integrate slurry wall excavation support into the permanent lateral support system of
deep excavations to avoid costly secondary support systems.

Introduction
Slurry wall construction is a technique for building reinforced concrete walls below the
ground surface. Slurry walls are often the most economical method of building deep structural
walls, particularly when a hydraulic barrier is needed to cutoff groundwater. Construction
typically proceeds by excavating a slurry trench using either a clamshell excavator or a hydromill
trench cutter. The trench is excavated one panel at a time and each panel is typically 1.5 to 3 ft
wide, 20 to 30 ft long, and as deep as is needed to reach rock or some other suitable low
permeability stiff layer. Trench excavations are kept open by using weighted slurry. After final
depth is excavated, a rebar cage is lowered into the slurry trench. Concrete is placed through
tremie techniques and slurry is removed from the excavation at the top of the trench (typically
recycled into another trench). After completing a slurry panel, the excavator moves on to
excavate additional panels.
A temporary or permanent end-stop is installed at the ends of
completed panels to allow the construction of an adjacent panel. The end result of slurry wall
1

Senior Associate, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. sfantaye@mrce.com
Structural Engineer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. lpapandrea@mrce.com
3
Supervising Engineer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY. jrichins@mrce.com
2

Fantaye, Sitotaw, Y., Papandrea, Lisa, Richins, Jesse. Slurry Walls for Permanent Lateral Resistance in Zones of
High Seismicity. Proceedings of the 10th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute, Anchorage, AK, 2014.

construction is a continuous reinforced-concrete wall that is suitable for resisting perpendicular

lateral loads (such as horizontal earth pressure) and transmitting vertical loads from the structure.
However, since steel reinforcing is not continuous between slurry wall panels, the in-plane shear
capacity of the wall is typically negligible. For this reason, in zones of high seismicity, where
very large shear loads are transmitted into basement walls, slurry walls are usually used as
temporary excavation support structures, with interior cast-in-place shear walls or other
structures used to resist lateral loads in the permanent structure.
As part of developing the buttress walls to support excavations at the Vehicle Security
Center (VSC) at the World Trade Center in New York City, an engineered shear connector
between slurry walls panels was developed and successfully implemented. This new technology
could be used in high seismicity zones to implement slurry walls as part of the permanent lateral
resistance system of structures, effectively reducing the need for costly interior lateral resistance
systems along the perimeter of basement walls.
Slurry Wall Construction at the Vehicle Security Center
The VSC, located on an approximately 200 ft (60.96m) by 400 ft (121.92 m) parcel of
land bounded by Liberty Street on the north (original World Trade Center bathtub slurry wall),
Cedar Street on the south, Greenwich Street on the east and West Street on the west is vital to the
function of the World Trade Center (WTC), Figure 1. When completed, it will serve all buildings
within the WTC. This multi-level state of the art vehicle screening and parking facility required
excavation ranging between 60 ft (18.3m) and 100 ft (30.48m) below grade.

Figure 1. Site Plan of Vehicle Security Center

One of the most difficult challenges in the design and construction of the VSC excavation
support and permanent perimeter basement walls was the slurry wall adjacent to 90 West Street,
a 20-story historic masonry building supported on timber piles. This wall is located along the
southern alignment of the VSC between West and Washington Streets. Installing tieback anchors
beneath the timber pile supported building was not permitted. After considering several wall
support alternatives , widely spaced buttress walls, with one level of raker supports to the top of

the buttress walls (see Figure 2) was selected as the most efficient and appropriate support.

Figure 2.

Typical Buttress Wall Section with Engineered Shear Connector

In conditions where tieback anchors cannot be used to laterally support a slurry wall,
alternative lateral support systems include: cross lot struts, rakers, closely spaced buttress walls,
or a combination of these elements. However, these conventional support systems could not be
used at the VSC for various reasons. Cross lot struts require forces from each side to generally be
balanced; this was not possible because the World Trade Center to the north had previously been
excavated and there was no other structure along the north to provide a reaction for the forces
from the south. In addition, the span between the north and south walls was more than 200 ft
(60.96m). This would have required very heavy, large diameter temporary struts spaced
frequently and or the addition of strut bracing systems. These struts would have interfered with
the construction of the VSC structure. Rakers were also ruled out because of the complexity of
their installation due to the depth of excavation being 60 ft (18.3m) to final subgrade, length and
size of rakers and the associated risk with unacceptable wall movement inherent in long raker
installation. Frequently spaced buttress walls were also not practical because the buttresses
projecting into the VSC would have rendered a significant amount of space unusable.
A unique solution was required: widely spaced buttress walls were selected and designed
such that they became part of the final garage floor support system. In essence, a buttress support
system works as an upright T-beam cantilevering from a fixed point at its base to support
lateral forces applied on its flange. These lateral forces consist of earth, water and building
surcharge pressures. The stems length of the T-beam, buttress, is dictated by the spacing of
the T-beam. With increased tributary area longer buttress walls are required to resist the lateral

pressures. The required buttress length for the selected spacing on this project was larger than a
typical panel width because the buttresses were widely spaced; it needed to consist of multiple
panels. However, as a T-beam in bending, the construction panel joints in the buttress needed
to resist in-plane shear forces (internal forces) acting as one. To minimize the number of panel
joints in the buttress, the buttress was constructed as a combination of a T-panel, with its flange
along the alignment of the slurry wall, and an additional panel, connected to the stem of the Tpanel, to provide the required buttress length.
This provided the most practical and cost effective solution. However, since the required
width of the buttresses was wider than a conventional slurry wall panel, these buttresses needed
to be composed of at least two individual slurry wall panels. Hence, a method to connect the
individual panels capable of transmitting significant in-plane shear forces had to be developed.
To minimize the number of shear connections between the panels forming the buttress wall, each
buttress wall consisted of a T-panel (primary panel) and a wide single-bite panel (follow-up
panel).
Typically, slurry walls are constructed by excavating a series of individual panels with
the use of some type of permanent or removable end-stop between panels. Whether the end-stop
is removed prior to pouring the adjacent panel or it is left in-place, a cold joint exists between
consecutive panels. Some proprietary end-stops are designed such that they form a shear key and
when the end-stop is removed a waterstop is left in place creating a watertight joint between
panels. Nonetheless, slurry walls constructed by such methods possess very limited in plane
shear transfer capacity at these joints because the frictional shear resistance provided by the joint
is limited. For this reason, slurry walls are not often used as shear walls in high seismicity zones
or if they are subject to in-plane lateral loading. In buttress walls where in plane shear capacity is
required at the joint between panels, conventional slurry wall construction method is not
practical without first addressing the required transfer of the in-plane shear. This challenge was
overcome on this project by the use of a permanent joint shear connector.
Engineered Shear Connector
The engineered shear connector, Figure 3, consisted of two parts:

A box-out comprised of plates welded to the flanges of an I-beam which house hooked
reinforcing bars welded to the web. It includes a lift gate and a bottom plate to prevent
the area from being filled with concrete when the primary panel is tremie poured and;

Hooked reinforcing welded to the web of the I-beam that project into the excavated slurry
filled primary panel, for splicing with the reinforcing cage of the primary panel.

The box-out was placed at the end of the slurry filled trench; it was filled with water to
counteract buoyancy during installation. For ease of splicing, the ends of the horizontal
reinforcing bars of the panel were crimped (slightly bent inwards) so that the panel reinforcing
cage would fit between the columns of the hooked reinforcing bars that were attached to the Ibeam. When the buttress wall was excavated after the T-panel cured, the lift gate not only was
used to protect the bars for future splicing but also acted as the vertical guide during the buttress

panel trench excavation. Once the buttress panel was excavated to the desired tip elevation, the
lift gate was lifted and the reinforcing cage of the buttress panel was lowered into place creating
a spliced connection capable of transmitting the in-plane shear.

Stage 1: Install
engineered shear
connector and tremie
pour T-panel (primary
Panel)

Stage 3: Lower buttress panel cage

into trench to lap with shear
connector
Stage 2: Excavate buttress panel
(follow-up Panel), remove lift
gate

Figure 3. Engineered shear connector details

Slurry Wall Construction in Areas of High Seismicity
Due to the limited in-plane shear capacity of typical slurry wall construction (described
above), slurry walls are not typically expected to contribute to a structures lateral resistance
system. For this reason, in areas with high seismicity, slurry walls are often used as temporary
excavation support systems for building structures, with deep basements and in challenging
geologic formations, with shallow groundwater table.
The engineered slurry wall connector we developed makes it possible to transmit large
in-plane shear loads through a slurry wall panel joint, taking advantage of the inherent lateral
resistance provided by a continuous slurry wall and potentially reducing the amount of interior
structures needed to resist lateral load. In essence, once continuity through panel joints is
developed, the slurry wall acts much like a cast-in-place shear wall.
As an example application of this technology, we evaluated a hypothetical building
constructed in an area with seismicity matching the Market District of San Francisco, California.
The hypothetical building was a 20 story reinforced concrete high-rise with a five-level basement
and a 100 ft x 100 ft footprint. The subsurface conditions at this hypothetical site are presented

in Figure 4. We assumed soil conditions with shallow groundwater at ten feet deep in a thick
deposit of relatively loose, high permeability granular soils. We assumed that at 90 ft deep, a
stiff overconsolidated clay layer with low permeability existed. This hypothetical situation
would be ideal for slurry wall construction, as a deep slurry wall could be used to support the
excavation and cutoff the shallow aquifer limiting the amount of groundwater pumped during
dewatering and drawdown at adjacent sites. A perimeter 3 ft thick slurry wall was selected to
dually function as the hypothetical buildings permanent foundation wall and as part of the
buildings lateral seismic force resisting system. The total depth of the slurry wall was 100 ft,
extending from ground surface to 10 ft into the stiff clay layer, with a final excavation depth of
50 ft for the basement levels. In our evaluation, we isolated one 100 ft long side of the slurry
wall for a two-dimensional analysis.

Figure 4. Plan (left) and typical section (right) of hypothetical slurry wall.
The site is located in an area of high seismicity, with expected Site Class B ground
motion values of Ss = 1.5g and S1 = 0.67g (based on 2010 ASCE-7 mapped values). Base shear
at the site was evaluated using a general code-based response spectra and using the Equivalent
Lateral Force Procedure described in ASCE/SEI 7-10, with Site Class D ground motion
modification factors. In calculating the in-plane shear forces induced by seismic forces on the
slurry wall, we made two basic assumptions. First, half of the seismic force was resisted by the
buildings lateral force resisting system located at the core, and twenty-five percent was resisted
by perimeter slurry walls, located on each side of the core lying in the plane of the seismic force.
Second, seismic forces from the basement levels were not included in this analysis, since these
forces will load the slurry wall normal to its face and will generate negligible in-plane forces.
Analysis of Hypothetical Slurry Wall
The slurry wall was modeled as a two-dimensional structure consisting of discrete plate
elements using RISA-2D, a structural finite-element analysis software. The applied loads and
boundary conditions for the model are presented in Figure 5. External loads included twentyfive percent of the superstructures seismic lateral force, applied as a horizontal distributed load

at the top of the wall, and twenty-five percent of the seismic overturning moment, applied as a
vertical distributed load at the top of the wall, assuming a linear elastic stress distribution.
Gravity loads from the superstructures perimeter columns, assumed to distribute through a grade
beam, were applied as a vertical distributed load at the top of the wall. Resistance to the applied
loads by the soil was modeled in three ways:

The vertical resistance provided by the stiff clay bearing stratum was modeled as vertical
one-way springs;

The lateral passive resistance of the soil at the end of the wall was modeled as horizontal
one-way springs, and;

The lateral frictional resistance provided by the soil-wall interface was modeled as
horizontal one-way springs, acting in the opposite direction of the passive soil springs.
We considered frictional resistance on both faces of the wall. On the outside face of the
wall, we conservatively assumed that only the soil below subgrade (50 ft from ground
surface) contributed to the frictional resistance.

Figure 5.

Finite element plate model with soil springs and applied loads. The dimensions of
each plate element are 5 ft x 5 ft; the total wall dimensions are 100 ft x 100 ft.

Soil springs were modeled as simple linear elastic-plastic springs. Initial spring stiffness
along the sides and toe of the wall were modeled as simplified springs developed for a vertically
and radially homogenous soil system after Randolph and Wroth (1978). The resistance provided
by the soil springs is limited to the ultimate strength of the soil or ultimate frictional resistance of
the soil-wall interface. Therefore, analysis was an iterative process. After the initial execution,
springs with reactions that exceeded their ultimate values were removed and replaced with an
applied load corresponding to its ultimate strength. The process was repeated until the analysis
resulted in no yielded soil springs.
In the final analysis, only the upper third portion of soil-wall springs was mobilized for
side friction, and moreover the mobilized springs were stressed below their yield point. As
shown in Figure 5, the majority of bearing stratum springs yielded and were replaced with the
limiting bearing force, however the resistance provided by soil and friction was sufficient in
preventing bearing failure and overturning.
The internal in-plane shear forces in the slurry wall are presented in Figure 7. Assuming
the panel layout depicted in Figure 4, the shear diagram along the length of the critical slurry
wall panel joint is also shown.

In-plane vertical
shear,
kips per ft

Figure 6: In-plane shear force contours, including shear diagram along critical panel joint.

Design of Shear Connector between Slurry Panels

The engineered shear connector successfully applied at the VSC can similarly be used for
our hypothetical slurry wall to create continuity between panels and hence a functional shear
wall. The shear connectors can be engineered using the principle of shear friction, which is
addressed in Chapter 11 of the ACI design code. To follow through with our example, the
ultimate design shear force, obtained from Figure 6, is 13 kips per foot. A shear connector
consisting of a W36 beam reinforced with several rows of reinforcing bars welded to each side of
the W36 web, can reasonably provide a design strength of twice the ultimate demand. In
instances where bar congestion and development length requirements are an issue, larger
diameter headed bars may be used.
Conclusion
An innovative solution was provided at the World Trade Centers Vehicle Security
Center for a structural connection between slurry wall panels that is capable of transmitting shear
through the panel joint. The engineered shear connector can be designed to provide significant
in-plane shear strength without forgoing constructability, as much emphasis was given to the
construction of the system throughout the design process. The installation of the shear connector
within the slurry wall is not unlike the installation of the panel end-stops used in traditional
slurry wall construction.
The hypothetical evaluation presented here illustrates that a slurry wall with engineered
shear connectors can function effectively as a lateral force resisting system in an area of high
seismicity. Incorporating the slurry foundation walls into a structures permanent lateral force
resisting system can greatly reduce the size and cost of the remaining lateral force resisting
components, without adding significantly to the cost of the slurry wall. This system should be
considered in future construction in zones of high seismicity.
References
1.

American Concrete Institute. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-11). 2011.

2.

ASCE-7. American Society of Civil Engineers/Structural Engineers Institute. Minimum Design Loads for
Buildings and Other Structures. 2010.

3.

Ashour, Mohammed, Norris, G., and Elfass, S. Analysis of Laterally Loaded Long or Intermediate Drilled
Shafts of Small or Large Diameter in Layered Soil. CA04-0252. California Department of Transportation.
Sacramento, CA. 2008.

4.

Fantaye, Sitotaw Y. Pioneering Connector for Slurry Wall Joints Deep Foundations. Deep Foundations
Institute. Hawthorne, New Jersey. July 2013.

5.

Fantaye, S. Y., Sun, L., Law, T.C.M, and Poletto, R. Design and Performance of Buttress Walls Constructed
by the Slurry Wall Method for the Vehicle Security Center, World Trade Center, NYC. Presented at
Foundation Challenges in Urban Environments, ASCE Metropolitan Section/Geo-Institute Chapter. New
York City. May 16, 2013.

6.

Randolph M. F., and Wroth, C. P. Analysis of deformation of vertically loaded piles, Journal Geotechnical
Engineering Division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Proceedings Paper 14262, Vol 104 (GT12). 1972.

7.

RISA-2D Version 8.0. <Computer Program> RISA Technologies, Foothill Ranch, California. 2007.