Excavation-Induced Settlement and Tilt of a 3-Story Building

Abstract

A 3-story building was found tilted badly as a result of a nearby deep excavation. Numerous cracks were developed on the façade walls and load-bearing brick walls. Dislodgement of some timber joists was observed at some parts of the second and third stories of the building. A detailed assessment of the conditions of the building was carried out. Unlike current prevailing practice, the assessment of damages caused by excavation-induced ground movements of this building includes tilts and out-of-plumbs of the load-bearing brick walls. The present study proposes to assume that the building behaves as a rigid body, and with appropriate empirical building correction factors to correct the inappropriateness of this assumption, reasonable estimates of the resulting out-of-plumbs of load-bearing brick walls of such buildings caused by a nearby deep excavation can be obtained. The empirically derived building correction factor is validated by comparing the predicted and measured out-of-plumbs of the brick wall of another 3-story masonry building affected by excavation. A new procedure for assessing damage potential to low-rise masonry buildings that includes tilt and out-of-plumb of brick walls caused by excavation is presented.