Estudio experimental y numérico del comportamiento de excavaciones ejecutadas mediante la técnica de suelo claveteado (soil nailing) en suelos de la ciudad de Quito (Ecuador).

Abstract

The "Soil Nailing" technique is a ground reinforcement procedure used consistently to stabilize slopes and land sections in geotechnical engineering projects. This technique is frequently used in the city of Quito (Ecuador) to reinforce the ground and improve slope stability during the excavation process for various underground parking levels. Such deep excavations are common in the city's most important real estate projects, in which "Soil Nailing" is used with different variations that are adjusted in accordance with the construction resources available in the particular environment. Despite its widespread use, this technique which has proven to be so effective in stabilizing excavations during the construction of underground structures in the soils of the city of Quito, currently suffers from a lack of local theoretical, numerical or experimental research based on the geotechnical properties of the city's characteristic soils.

Geotechnical Characterization of Quito’s North-Central Zone as Applied to Deep Excavation in the Urban Setting

“…The subsoil in the zone object of this study comprises volcanic soils. As background information, Ecuador is a country with a great deal of volcanic activity and many volcanoes; however, very few complete studies have been carried out to characterize these types of materials [1]. For example, O'Rourke and Crespo [2] studied the volcanic soils in the eastern zone of the city of Quito; Belloni and Morris [3] studied the behavior of volcanic debris soils as they relate to slope stability in the El Reventador Volcano zone, located some 100 km northeast of the city of Quito, in the northern zone of eastern Ecuador, and Vezzoli et al [4] performed a characterization study of the pyroclastic deposits from the Cotopaxi Volcano, which is located some 75 km southeast of the city of Quito.…”

“…Thus, in the construction of most underground building structures in the Ecuadorian capital, the Soil Nailing technique is frequently applied during the excavation process as a method for reinforcing the ground during the excavation process, with some variations according to the equipment available in the region and the specifications of each project. However, this technique, which has proved to be effective for the management of soil excavations in the city of Quito, currently lacks local research, whether theoretical, numerical, or experimental, based on the geotechnical properties of the volcanic soils that characterize the area [1].…”