Design a diaphragm wall the way it is built. Draw the excavation and drag its corners to lay out the panels, check that each trench stands open under bentonite or polymer, then run the staged soil–structure analysis with struts, anchors and floor slabs to get the deflections, moments and prop loads for every stage. The studio checks embedment, base heave, piping and uplift, designs the reinforcement cage, the joints and the tremie concrete, predicts the settlement behind the wall and the damage to the building next door, and plans and prices the panels — with an A3 drawing set, Excel workbook and report.
Scope & limitations
For preliminary design and education. The beam-on-springs model and the empirical settlement methods do not replace a finite-element analysis of the actual sequence; base the design on a site investigation, follow EN 1538 or the project specification for execution, and have it checked by a qualified geotechnical and structural engineer.
What the diaphragm wall studio does
Describe the ground (drained soils and clays with undrained strength), groundwater on both sides, a confined aquifer if there is one, the wall, the formation and every strut, anchor or floor slab — drag the toe, the formation and the support levels on the section.
Draw the excavation in plan and drag its corners: the outline is split into corner (L) and straight panels with a primary, secondary and closure sequence, bites, cages, tremies, concrete with overbreak and overpour, and the joint overlap left by the verticality tolerance.
Check the open trench under bentonite or polymer: a 2-D wedge and a 3-D wedge over the panel length with the rig surcharge and the guide walls, the fluid head above groundwater, filter-cake penetration in sands and gravels, fluid test limits and the guide wall design.
Run the staged soil–structure analysis — beam on elasto-plastic springs with supports installed at the displacement of their stage, short-term and long-term, SLS and factored ULS, and a permanent stage with the base slab — then embedment by limit equilibrium, base heave, piping and uplift.
Design the cage by zones (flexure, shear, crack width, bar spacing for tremie concrete), struts, anchors and slabs, joints and BS 8102 watertightness, tremie concrete and pours; estimate settlement and building damage with trigger levels, the panel cycle and programme, and the cost. Outputs: an A3 drawing set, an Excel workbook with live formulas and JSON.