Influence of soil-structure interaction parameters probability distribution law on the transmission of ground movements to structures

Abstract

Underground voids caused by tunneling or mining activity produce soil movements and may expose structures to physical and/or functional damage. To assess structures vulnerability, soil-structure interaction (SSI) parameters are modeled using probability distribution laws to consider their complexity and their uncertainty. Therefore, the target of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the selection of distribution laws for each input SSI parameter on the structure response. Thus, continuous random variables are applied using Monte Carlo simulations, and two analytical models (elastic and elastoplastic) are considered to evaluate the transmission of ground movements to structures. Results reveal the significant influence of the choice of probabilistic laws of input parameters through a sensitivity analysis evaluated via Sobol variance-based method.