CASE STUDIES ON DIFFERENTIAL

SETTLEMENTS
By
G SAI SRAVYA
(14071D1204)

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

T GNANANANDA RAO
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering &Technology,
Bachupally, Nizampet (S.O), Hyderabad-500090, AP

CONTENTS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES
LITERATURE REVIEW
CASE STUDIES
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

1.INTRODUCTION
SETTLEMENT:
Settlementin a structure refers to
the distortion or disruption of parts
of a building due to:
a)
Unequal compression of its
foundations
b) Shrinkage due to changes in
moisture content
c) Undue loads being applied to the
building after its initial construction.

TYPES OF SETTLEMENT:
Uniform settlement
Non-uniform settlement
Tilting

2.OBJECTIVES:
The present project will investigate
theoretically , the behavior of soil under
long term loading.
This project includes :
What are the causes of settlements.
How differential settlement takes place.
How to overcome settlements in
structures.

CAUSES OF SETTLEMENTS:

Weak soil strata

Poor compaction
Changes in moisture content
Maturing trees and vegetation
Soil consolidation
Wetting and softening of soils

REPAIR TECHNIQUES:

Foundation underpinning
Polymer injection
Grout pumping

DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT:
The settlement of a structure is the amount the

foundation sinks during and after construction. If that

settlement takes place unevenly it is said to be
undergoing Differential settlement.
Generally the foundations which rest on weak soil

strata undergo uneven settlement.

Due to differential settlement the foundation sinks

unevenly and cracks are formed in the structure and

there is a danger of collapse of a structure.

FIG:
DIFFERENT
SETTLEMENT

FORMS

OF
9

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Xiaoming Yuan, Rui Sun, Meng Shangjiu

et.al: The irregular character of the seismic waves

themselves may have a significant contribution to the
differential settlement of subsoil and buildings and
should be considered in evaluation for the differential
settlement and other problems relating to the soil
deformation due to earthquakes.

Kyung Nam Kim, Ki-Seok Kim, Choong-Ki

Chung, Myoung Mo Kim, Hae Sung Lee

et.al: This paper presents an optimal pile
arrangement scheme for minimizing the differential
settlements of piled raft foundations. The optimization
is performed with respect to the locations of the piles.
10

 Jaeyeon Cho, Sangseom Jeong, Jaehwan

Lee et.al: The settlement behaviour of a square piled

raft in clay soil was investigated. The emphasis was on
quantifying the reduction of the average and differential
settlements in soft and stiff clay soils.
It is found that the required pile group-raft area ratio
(Ag/Ar) for minimizing differential settlement in soft clay
was slightly larger than that of stiff clay in the same pile
array.

Ernesto Cascone, Giovanni Biondi et.al:

The method of preloading associated with prefabricated
vertical drains was used to accelerate the consolidation
process and anticipate the long-term settlements of the
foundation soil of two cylindrical oil tanks founded on an
alluvial deposit mainly consisting of silty clays.
11

4 CASE STUDY ON DIFFERENTIAL

SETTLEMENT:
4.1 LEANING TOWER OF PISA ITALY:

Leaning tower of Pisa which was in Italy has considered

one of the seven wonders in ancient times as it was leaned
towards south with an angle of
3.97.

FIG: LEANING TOWER OF

PISA ITALY

CAUSES OF SETTLEMENT:
Inadequate foundation
Weak soil strata
fluctuating water table

REMEDIAL MEASURES:

Drilling a network of holes into the foundation and then

filling them with a cement grout mixture.

Braced with steel tendons, to relieve the strain on the

vulnerable masonry

Underground steel anchors, to invisibly yank the tower

northwards.

Installation of helical drills surrounded by hollow steel

casings to remove soil from below the high north side of
the tower
14

FIG: MEASURES ADOPTED TO

REDUCE TILT

15

4.2 G+2 INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING WHICH

HAS
UNDERGONE DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT:
The foundation work was complete and the

Superstructure construction was in progress, when

cracks were noticed in the plinth Beams.

FIG: CRACKS IN PLINTH

16

CAUSES OF FAILURE:

Some foundations were located above the

natural ground at a depth of 2m in
unconsolidated filled up ground of an
abandoned laterite stone quarry, where SPT was
found to be less than12,which resulted in
differential settlement.

This differential settlement was observed

towards the front left corner of the Building
which was lying on the filled up ground
17

REMEDIAL MEASURES:
In order to avoid the transfer of stresses in the

connecting components, the affected beams were

separated from sinking columns
Expansion joints were provided between this portion

and the rest of the intact part of the structure.

FIG: BEAMS SEPARATED FROM

COLUMNS

18

5 CONCLUSIONS:

Generally differential settlement is predominant in

weak soils and it leads to failure of structure.

Non homogeneous soil strata, poor compaction and

water table level are the main causes of differential

settlement in structures.
Remedial measures such as ground improvement

techniques, removal of excess soil on high side of the

structure, grout pumping are mostly adopted.

19

6. REFERENCES:
Effect of asymmetry and irregularity of seismic
waves on earthquakeinduced differential
settlementof buildings on natural subsoil by Xiaoming
Yuan, Rui Sun, Meng Shangjiu et.al.
Optimal pile arrangement for minimizing differential
settlementsin piled
raft foundations by Kyung Nam
Kim, Ki-Seok Kim, Choong-Ki Chung, Myoung Mo Kim, Hae
Sung Lee et.al
Thesettlementbehavior of piled raft in clay soils
by Jaeyeon Cho, Sangseom Jeong, Jaehwan Lee et.al.
A case study on soil settlementsinduced by
preloading and vertical drains by Ernesto Cascone,
Giovanni Biondi et.al.

THANK YOU. .

21

QUERIES.????

22