Developing a Statistical Model for Building Settlement Prediction

Abstract

Texas is well known for its complex soil conditions and corresponding building settlement issues. As a result, it is important to introduce to the students of Construction Science and Management (CSM) program the basic building settlement concepts including causes, consequences and treatments. One important topic is how the design of a building (e.g., height, weight and foundation types) affect building settlement on various types of soil. This requires the ability to calculate building settlement. However, theoretical models that are used in the geotechnical engineering area are too complicated to non-engineering students. This paper develops a statistical model to predict the building settlement. An interactive education tool has also been developed based on the statistical model, which is much easier for CSM students to explore the relationship between building & soil characteristics and building final settlement. The model and the tool will be tailored into the Construction Materials and Methods course at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a part of the soil and foundation topic.

The Weight of New York City: Possible Contributions to Subsidence From Anthropogenic Sources

“…We can compare the range of modeled settlement with observed values from a wide variety of locations and geologic settings from hard rock to sand and silty clay. Du and Gunhan (2014) report from technical documents and job site observations a mean total settlement of 49.7 mm and a range from 2 to 240 mm for 1-7 story buildings in Texas, USA. Katzenbach et al (2005) observe primary settlement of a 100+ m tower in Frankfurt, Germany at 30 mm, with an expected final value of 50 mm.…”