Standsicherheit von Kellerwänden bei drückendem Wasser

Design of basement walls under earth and water pressure.

The past decades have shown a tremendous increase in the occurrence of floods in Germany. This development asks for a extension of the design procedure used for basement walls, which is based on an arc model. As the standard regulations do not take into account hydrostatic pressure, the development of a new model regarding water pressure is evident. For this purpose, design diagrams were derived either accounting for the already existing load from the normative method to determine the maximum possible water level or diagrams which show the required minimum dead load for a certain water level. Water pressure due to a flooding represents an extraordinary load with specific partial safety factors within the design situation. If the basement wall is completely backfilled it can be shown, that the extraordinary load of hydrostatic pressure is only relevant for the wall design, if the water level rises near the terrain surface. In case of partially backfilled walls often small dead loads are sufficient to ensure adequate reliability.