Inverse and probabilistic analysis of induced settlements by wetting in collapsible soils

¹ Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Córdoba, Argentina
² Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología (IDIT), CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Córdoba, Argentina
³ eCampus University, Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, Via Isimbardi 10, Novedrate, Italy.

^* Corresponding author: ignacio.giomi@uniecampus.it

Abstract

Collapsible soil exhibits major settlements under wetting scenarios, causing meaningful economical losses associated to damages of structures. Increasing the water content produce a permanent change in the soil microstructure and instantly reduction of pore volumes. In this work, the settlements induced by wetting in a full-scale foundation prototype over collapsible loess is analyzed. A hydro- mechanical (H-M) model was adopted to consider the soil response and the behaviour of shallow foundations caused by a water pipe leakage. The model was calibrated from experimental data and in-situ measurements, and the settlements were studied by considering inverse, sensitivity and statistical analyses. Final settlements after 2 years of infiltration were computed performing Monte Carlo simulation, showing the accuracy of the H-M model adopted to predict the collapse phenomena in shallow foundations.