Minería y Geología (Oct 2021)
Estimation of additional costs by seismic safety in shallow foundations projects
Abstract
Additional costs for seismic safety are evaluated in shallow foundation projects for five reinforced concrete buildings with different dimensions in plan and prop, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, an area of greatest seismic danger in Cuba. The direct costs of the foundation plates for seismic, wind load and gravity loads are compared separately. The physical mechanical properties of the soil were obtained from testing soil samples obtained by SPT test at the construction site. The requirements for the design of the foundation plates result from the structural modeling using SAP 2000 NL version 14 for the load combinations recommended by current Cuban regulations. For the geotechnical and structural design of the foundation, the Excel book DISCAR 3.0 was used. The budgets were calculated using the PRESWIN program, showing increases in the costs for seismic safety of the foundation plates between 34 to 66% in relation to similar costs obtained by wind loads or gravitational loads, significantly increasing the dimensions of the foundation’s plates, concrete and excavation volumes as well as total reinforcing steel weight for seismic loads.
