Evaluating Damage Potential in Buildings Affected by Excavations
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 10
Abstract
Predicting building damage due to ground movements caused by excavations is an important design consideration when building in a congested urban environment. Current predictive approaches range from empirical methods to detailed finite element calculations. Limitations inherent in the simpler of these models preclude them from accurately predicting damage in cases where important assumptions are invalid. A new simple model for representing buildings is presented to allow a designer to make realistic simplifications to a building system that is consistent with major features of the structure so that the response to ground movements can be adequately represented. This model assumes that the floors restrain bending deformations and the walls, whether load bearing or in-fill between columns, resist shear deformations. Closed-form equations are presented that relate bending and shear stiffness to normalized deflection ratios. The proposed model is shown to adequately represent the response of a three-story framed structure which was affected by an adjacent deep excavation. The proposed model represents a reasonable compromise between overly simplistic empirical methods and complex, burdensome detailed analyses.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank Dr. Andy Longinow and Mr. Nicholas Hyatt of Wiss, Janney Elstner Associates Inc. (WJE) for providing the structural details and damage records of the Warde School and Dr. Howard Hill of WJE for reviewing the manuscript. Financial support for this work was provided by the Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) of Northwestern University and National Science Foundation Grant No. NSFCMS-0219123. The support of Mr. David Schulz, ITI’s director, and Dr. Richard Fragaszy, program director at NSFNSF, is greatly appreciated.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 10 • October 2005
Pages: 1199 - 1210
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 21, 2004
Accepted: Feb 7, 2005
Published online: Oct 1, 2005
Published in print: Oct 2005
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