Reliability Assessment of Damage Potential of Buildings Caused by Excavation

Abstract

This paper presents a reliability-based approach for assessing the potential for excavationinduced building damage where building damage is defined as a violation of serviceability requirements. The basis of the reliability analysis is an assessment criterion based on the damage potential index (DPI). A DPI-based serviceability limit state is established with regard to the “limiting” DPI (the resistance) and the “applied” DPI (the load) where exceedance of the limiting DPI by the applied DPI constitutes violation of serviceability requirements and results in building damage. Subsequently, the parameter and model uncertainties are fully characterized for both the limiting DPI and applied DPI, and the first-order reliability method (FORM) is used to calculate the probability of damage. The entire approach is implemented in an Excel spreadsheet and demonstrated with a real world case history.