Santos Et Al. (2022)
Santos Et Al. (2022)
Santos Et Al. (2022)
Y.R.P. Santos
Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
B.C.F. Rocha
UNINASSAU, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil
M.A. Lima
UNINASSAU, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil
P.D.L. Nascimento
UNINASSAU, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil
M.M.M. Meneses
UNINASSAU, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil
ABSTRACT:
Soil-structure interaction (SSI) has mechanisms that allow analyzing the structural performance
of a building, considering its foundation, its superstructure and as singularities of the terrain on
which it will be built as a single system. The present study aims to carry out the redesign foun-
dations project of a reinforced concrete building (tower "A"), consisting of 22 pillars, with iso-
lated and associated footings foundations on a rock mass of granitic composition and RQD pre-
dominantly higher than 75%, considering this interaction, based on the redistribution of efforts
between the pillars of the structure, verifying its influence on the geometry and consumption of
materials in the design of its foundation elements. After redesign, the results obtained revealed
that there was no significant change in foundation geometry, as well as in the consumption of
concrete comparing the projects with and without SSI. For steel consumption, the results
showed an increase in the steel area of the associated footings SPA-07/13 and SPA-10/16 and
the isolated footings SPA-15 and SPA-20; while the SPA-01 and SPA-21 isolated footings ob-
tained a certain decrease in this material. It is concluded that, for this project, the soil-structure
interaction did not have a significant influence on the observed points, due to the low efforts re-
distribution on the analyzed pillars, which was reflected in the maintenance of dimensions and
quantity of materials in almost all of the foundation elements studied.
Keywords: Soil-Structure interaction, Shallow foundations, Redesign, Rocky mass foudations.
1 INTRODUCTION
Buildings can have shallow and deep foundations, and have the function of supporting all
loads from the structure, safely meeting requests. Foundation system depends on the project re-
quests and the study of the subsoil is considered fundamental, as it provides a range of infor-
mation necessary to avoid failures in the design. According to Brito (1987), foundations with
well-designed projects have a final cost of 3% to 10% of the total value of the building, and
when poorly designed, they can cost 5 to 10 times more than what had been established.
The design of foundations of a building is usually carried out separately from the structural
design, in this way it is common for the designer to analyze the behavior of the foundation con-
sidering non-displaceable supports, that is, disregarding the soil-structure interaction. The soil-
structure interaction is the method that analyzes the soil mass together with the infrastructure
and the superstructure as a single system, applying the analysis model proposed by Winkler
(1867) that represents the foundation elements with elastic supports (springs). This mechanism
IX Latin American Rock Mechanics Symposium
IX Simposio Latinoamericano de Mecánica de Rocas
Asunción-Paraguay
October 16-19, 2022
leads to a more real estimation of the structure's behavior and, therefore, the importance of con-
sidering the soil-structure interaction (SSI) is highlighted.
Studies presented by Meyerhof (1953), Morris (1966), Lee & Brown (1972), and Poulos
(1975) proposed SSI analysis, verifying factors such as construction processes, floor numbers,
construction sequence, building shape and other effects related to soil/rock and structure behav-
ior. Gusmão (1990) reported that the performance of a building is managed by the conditioned
rigidity of the effects of the soil-structure interaction and Colares (2006) presented in his study
that considering the mechanisms of the soil-structure interaction causes a redistribution of the
forces acting on the structural elements, causing the uniformity of settlements. In this way,
when considering the SSI, it is possible to develop more efficient and adequate projects.
Savaris et al. (2011), Santos (2016) and Santos et al. (2021) analyzing real cases of buildings
through monitored settlements, also showed that, the settlements measurement along diferente
construction stages enables to observe loads redistribution between central and the edge reinfor-
ced concrete columns.
This study was been prepared in order to report the changes in the design of the foundations
of the analyzed building considering the SSI, being carried out the redesign of the footings ac-
cording to the new calculated loads and also making a comparison between the geometry and
the amount of materials for the resized elements.
The construction analyzed in this study is a multi-story residential building called tower "A",
which is part of a two-tower complex located on Adjar da Silva Casé Avenue, Indianópolis, city
of Caruaru-PE. The building consists of a ground floor, two mezzanines that serve as parking,
32 slabs-floor where the apartments are located, in addition to the roof and attic floors. Accord-
ing to Santos (2018), all structure was been designed in reinforced concrete, according NBR
6118 (2003).
The city of Caruaru-PE is located on the Borborema plateau and presents terrains with more
resistant characteristics, with the presence of rocks. Eight mixed-type drilling holes were carried
out, with SPT (Standard Penetration Test) and rotating drilling, in order to know the terrain of
the project site, totaling 8 drilling holes that revealed a superficial layer of sandy soil with boul-
ders, followed by from the presence of cataclasite with little altered granitic composition (Figure
1), whose RQD (rock quality designation) indicates values predominantly higher than 75%,
classifying them as good to excellent, average simple compressive strength of 110.90 MPa and
absence of water level up to the investigated average depth, which was around 10 meters in rela-
tion to the ground level.
Figure 1. Granitic rock sample obtained by the subsoil investigation (Santos, 2018).
IX Latin American Rock Mechanics Symposium
IX Simposio Latinoamericano de Mecánica de Rocas
Asunción-Paraguay
October 16-19, 2022
As a result of the characteristics presented by the terrain after the surveys, with favorable
strength properties, the project was been developed using shallow foundations, consisting of 18
isolated footings and 2 associated footings, represented in the projection plan of the footings
with the location of the pillars as shown in Figure 2, as well as the drilling holes carried out for
the subsoil investigation. The original footing projects were been designed for an allowable
bearing capacity of 800 kPa, with a 30% increase in this stress (920 KPa), as defined by NBR
6122 (2019), a standard taken as a basis for the design and execution of foundations.
3m
36,86
SPA1 SPA2 SPA4 SPA5
6,8
SPA3
6
SM-01 SM-03
SM-02
SPA8 SPA9
SPA6 SPA11
SPA7/13 SPA10/16
21,00 m
SM-A SM-B
SPA12 SPA17
SPA14 SPA15
SM-05
SM-04 SM-06
SPA20
SPA18 SPA19 SPA21 SPA22
Figure 2. Projection plan and location of drill holes, original pillars and footings (Santos, 2018).
with SSI effects. The model used to calculate foundation elements was based on NBR 6118
(2014).
Vb A.B.H 0 (1)
Ht H 0
Vt .[( A.B) (ap.bp ) ( A.B).(ap.bp )] (2)
3
It can be observed in the tables presented that there was no change in the geometry of most of
the footings, with only a change in the geometry of the SPA-15, which resulted in an increase of
10 cm in the dimensions “A” and “B”. In both cases, the total footing heights (Ht) remained the
same, as well as H0 and H1. The redistribution of loads observed in the pillars P-01, P-10 and
P-16 did not influence on footings geometry.
IX Latin American Rock Mechanics Symposium
IX Simposio Latinoamericano de Mecánica de Rocas
Asunción-Paraguay
October 16-19, 2022
Figure 3 illustrates a comparison of the geometries when overlaying the projections of the
footings dimensioned with SSI, in green dashed lines and without SSI, in solid blue lines,
showing the only change in relation to the size change of the shoes, seen in SPA-15, where there
was an increase of 10 cm for each direction (Lx and Ly) – A and B, after SSI effects.
37 m
21 m
Detail A
(Dimensions change of SPA-15 after SSI)
Figure 3. Overlaying the projections and detailing the change in the dimension of the SPA-15.
562.71 cm² to 532.30 cm² for SPA-21), because when considering the SSI, the pillars P-01 and
P-21 obtained load relief, with this, there is a relief in the footing request, requiring less steel ar-
ea to supply the bending forces acting on the elements.
As for the SPA-15, S-20 and associated SPA-07/13 and SPA-10/16 shoes (the latter, from
493.53 cm² to 511.03 cm²), there was an increase in loads, resulting in an increase in steel areas,
because, with the increase of the acting forces, a larger area of steel is necessary to support the
bending forces acting on these elements. The SPA-01 was been detailed for two analyses, with-
out SSI and with SSI, in order to illustrate the little change in steel consumption. The choice of
the SPA-01 shoe was due to the fact that it had the greatest load reduction. The required anchor-
age length for the footings was calculated for concrete with a strength of 45 MPa (C-45). Gaug-
es of 20 mm and 22 mm were considered for the dimensioning for the steel and hook in the rein-
forcements. Figure 4 represents SPA-01 without SSI and Figure 5 represents SPA-01 after SSI.
The results in Table 8 show that only the SPA-15 had an increase in material consumption
(from 8.67 m³ to 9.13 m³) due to the increase in its geometry. For the other elements the con-
sumption remained stable for the analysis without interaction and with the interaction. This con-
tinuity is justified for the two analyses, since the total heights (Ht) and also H0 and H1 of these
footings did not change.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The redesign results showed that there was no significant change in the geometry of the foot-
ings, where only the SPA-15 footing showed an increase in its section (with an increase of 10
IX Latin American Rock Mechanics Symposium
IX Simposio Latinoamericano de Mecánica de Rocas
Asunción-Paraguay
October 16-19, 2022
cm in the two dimensions “A” and “B”), as well as also in the consumption of concrete compar-
ing the projects with and without considering the soil-structure interaction.
For steel consumption, the results showed that there was an increase in the steel area of the
associated footings SPA-07/13 and SPA-10/16 and the isolated footings SPA-15 and SPA-20;
however, SPA-01 and SPA-21 elements had a certain decrease in this material. It is concluded,
for this project, that the soil-structure interaction had no significant influence on the observed
points, due to the low change in the redistribution of loads acting on the analyzed pillars consid-
ering the interaction, which was been reflected in the maintenance of dimensions and volume of
materials in almost all of the verified foundation elements. From the results presented, the ana-
lyzes for the building were satisfactory when considering the interaction, making it evident that
the new loads do not harm the structural elements of the dimensioned project without consider-
ing the soil-structure interaction.
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