2D Numerical Analysis of Settlement Damage to Buildings: Including a non-linear Masonry Model and Soil-structure Interface

The increased number of underground infrastructure projects asks for a reliable and efficient assessment of settlement damages to buildings. Currently a three-stage method is in use: the first stage looks into the greenfield deformations, the second stage is a linear elastic 2D method in which greenfield deformations are applied onto a building and the third stage uses finite element methods and 3D models. The goal of this thesis was to improve the second stage by incorporating a non-linear masonry model and a soil-structure interface. A 2D parametric analysis has been performed in which various material and geometrical parameters were varied. The soil model was simplified to a linear-elastic model. The results of the research are twofold. On the one hand there are the results of the parametric analysis showing the effect of incorporating the non-linear masonry model and the soil-structure interface. On the other hand incorporating these two aspects a number of issues came up: the influence of the crack model and convergence criterion, the influence of the building location, the influence of the initial stress and the influence of the participating soil width. For each issue an explanation was sought and the consequences were determined. The results of the parametric analysis showed that including a non-linear material model and a soil-structure interface leads to lower acceptable volume losses. In practice it is generally believed that the current models are already too conservative. The difference between reality and the models must be sought in components that are still missing in the current model.Structural DesignStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience