Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Interference Effect of Adjacent Buildings on Sand and Fill Deposits.

Interference effects of two adjacent foundations include changing failure mechanism, load settlement, and stress distribution behavior; this can result damages such as differential settlement, tilting, cracking, reduction of serviceability, and even failure. To address these issues, the present study aims to assess the effect of the number of new adjacent building stories on settlement and the tilt of the existing building. The study evaluates the interference effects of two adjacent foundations on sand and fill by finite-element Plaxis 3D in two groups. The first numerical modeling group is conducted in a small scale and compared with laboratory tests that are performed on a 1 g chamber with a height and diameter of 1 m, thickness of 0.01 m, revealing a similar settlement and tilting pattern. The second group is modeled two closely circular footings in full scale. The results showed that the induced settlement increases as the number of stories increases, from 7.5 to 23.5 mm for sand and 25.6 to 38.2 mm for fill, respectively, when the applied load increases from 40 to 100 kN/m². Moreover, in the fill soil, the settlement of the foundation's center was, on average, 167% more than that of sand, with an increase in the number of stories from 4 to 6, and this difference reduced to about 77% in higher stories. Finally, three real cases include "Guilan Residential Building, Grain Silos and Athens Buildings" are evaluated by numerical modeling and induced complications assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]