Crack Pattern Investigation in the Structural Members of a Framed Two-Floor Building due to Excavation-Induced Ground Movement

Abstract

Increased urbanization causes traffic and parking issues especially in metropolitan cities like Karachi, London, Shanghai, etc. To accommodate parking issues for the vehicles mainly in urban areas (excavated) underground parking areas under or nearby high rise buildings are preferred. As a result of excavation, ground movements occur that have a major impact on structures, buildings, and utilities. The past research usually oversimplified surface structure as an equivalent elastic beam, which is unable to represent the behavior of a framed building realistically. In this study, the detrimental effects (i.e. crack pattern) on a two-floor RCC framed building founded on piles due to an adjacent excavation-induced ground movement are investigated. Elasto-plastic coupled-consolidation analysis was adopted. The hypoplastic constitutive model was used to capture soil behavior. It is an advanced model which is able to capture the soil unique features which are non-linear behavior, stiffness degradation (with stress, strain & path-dependent), and stress-strain dependent soil dilatancy. The concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model was used to capture the cracking behavior in the concrete beams, columns and piles. It was revealed that the induced slope and tilting are not equal. Consequently, the frame was distorted. As a result, tension cracks were induced at the inner side of the column.

A Three-Dimensional Parametric Study of the Effects of a Fault Rupture on a Multi-Story Building

“…However, the actual displacement that occurs with surface rupture can vary drastically from the expected values. To understand the failure mechanism of these foundation systems, including strip and caisson foundations, experimental and theoretical studies have been conducted [3][4][5][6][7][8]. The position of the foundation relative to the bedrock fault and the magnitude of the bedrock fault movement were found to be crucial influencing factors.…”