Further development of distinct lattice spring model for stability and collapse analysis of deep foundation pit excavation

In this work, the distinct lattice spring model (DLSM) is further developed for handling practical geotechnical problems. The Zienkiewicz-Pande (ZP) constitutive model is implemented into the DLSM for a better prediction of soil plasticity. The beam finite element is introduced to simulate supporting structures. The birth–death particle method is developed for the DLSM to simulate the multistage construction. The accuracy and stability of the enriched DLSM are verified against both analytical solutions and numerical results from well-established commercial software. Following this, the enriched DLSM is applied to analyze the stability of one actual deep foundation pit construction project, and its numerical prediction is compared with the actual monitoring data. Finally, a preliminary trial on the design of the foundation pit supporting structure is carried out by using the enriched DLSM. These applications show that the enriched DLSM can be an alternative numerical method for the stability and collapse analysis of deep foundation pit excavation.