Impact of a Tree on a Residential Building on Expansive Soils: A Numerical Approach

This paper presented the analysis of a residential building built on expansive soils influenced by the local daily weather conditions and a tree over a period of two years. A recently-developed simulation system was used for the simulation in which the influence of weather conditions on evapotranspiration was evaluated by the FAO 56 PM method, the volume change of expansive soil was simulated by fully-coupled consolidation theory for saturated-unsaturated soils, the soil-structure interaction was simulated by coupled contact elements, and the slab foundation and superstructures were simulated by general shell elements. Different simulation techniques were used to combine all these components into one single system. Simulation results indicated that tree had significant influence on behaviour of residential building built on expansive soils.