Issue |
E3S Web of Conf.
Volume 382, 2023
8th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils (UNSAT 2023)
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 17004 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Unsaturated Soil Mechanics in the Preservation and Pathology of Historic Monuments | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202338217004 | |
Published online | 24 April 2023 |
Assessment of tunnels stability in the Maya archaeological area of Copán, Honduras
1 University of Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
2 University of Minho, Azurém, Guimarães, Portugal
* Corresponding author: bilotta@unina.it
Copan is an important heritage site known by its preserved Maya ruins and recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Property since 1980. To investigate and understand the site development, extensive archaeological tunnels were excavated in the earthen fills of the temples in the twentieth century.Archaeologists found a series of superimposed temples, built one upon another, in a very complex chronological sequence and spatial disposition. Even though the tunnels were initially excavated in the earthen fill without putting in place any supporting structure, masonry lining was applied in parts of the unnels years after they were excavated, in areas that suffered local collapses. Thick walls were built, forming tunnels about 1.0 m wide and 2.0 to 3.0 m high. The excavated soil is unsaturated, and thus has a strength depending on its water content and suction. Since most of the observed collapses take place during raining events, the effect of the change of the saturation degree on tunnels stability was investigated with numerical analyses. As typical in numerical simulations, the positive effects of desaturation were considered in this work through a simplified approach, introducing an ‘apparent cohesion’ depending on the soil water content. The outcomes indicate that in order to ensure sufficient safety margins in the tunnels, water content within the soil mass close to the tunnels, in critical sections, should be carefully monitored, and drainage in the lined sections should be ensured to avoid direct water pressure on the lining.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.