Efficiency of mitigation measures for structures subjected to ground movement

N. Prime (1) , Fabrice Emeriault (1) , Matthieu Caudron (2) , Marwan Al Heib (2)

1 LGCIE - Laboratoire de Génie Civil et d'Ingénierie Environnementale
2 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

Surface subsidence resulting from the collapse of underground cavities, whether natural or man-made can interact with existing buildings on the surface. One of the mitigation measures used is to dig a peripheral trench at a certain distance from the structure, filled with a soft material, like peat, or artificial material. This is thought to reduce the horizontal strain applied to the structure. The 3D numerical analysis presented in this paper is a first step towards evaluating the efficiency of this type of mitigation technique. The numerical model developed using Abaqus allows the effect of various parameters such as the width or depth of the peripheral trench, its distance from the building and/or the stiffness and strength of the filling material to be clearly determined.

Keywords: COMPUTATIONAL GEOMECANICS

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences; Environmental Sciences

N. Prime, Fabrice Emeriault, Matthieu Caudron, Marwan Al Heib. Efficiency of mitigation measures for structures subjected to ground movement. 1. International Symposium on computational geomechanics (COMGEO 2009), Apr 2009, Juan-les-Pins, France. pp.1014-1023. ⟨ineris-00973338⟩