Experimental and Analytical Evaluations of Ground Behaviors on Changing in Groundwater Level in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Groundwater level changes have numerous effects on buildings, such as differential ground deformation and cracking on the wall. In Bangkok, Thailand, change in groundwater levels changing was caused by groundwater pumping that took place from 1978 to 1997. This is the main effect of ground deformation in a wide area of the Bangkok plain. According to the regulation of groundwater pumping in Bangkok and urban areas, the trend of groundwater level tended to recover around the year 1997. However, the ground settlement still occurs for a while after groundwater recovery. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the capability of each approach for the ground deformation and the pile capacity in the situation of groundwater level change. Data in this study were obtained from the previous centrifuge test which had been modeled for the Bangkok area. The ground behavior and pile load capacity behavior were verified using numerical modeling. Both experimental modeling and numerical modeling represent very similar trends of ground deformation. The pile capacity results from both models’ increase while the groundwater level decreases and the pile capacity decreases when groundwater is recovered. The numerical modeling results reveal an overestimate of the ground behavior. However, both results present the loss of pile capacity in the range of 8 to 25% of maximum load when the groundwater level reach to the minimum level.

Keywords

• groundwater level change
• Bangkok area
• pile capacity
• experimental modeling
• analytical modeling