MECHANISMS OF SUBSIDENCE DUE TO UNDERGROUND OPENINGS

Subsidence from underground defects is an increasing problem, and effective preventive or corrective measures depend on knowing the mechanism causing the failure. Too often, however, the mechanism is ignored or diagnosed from the appearance of the ground surface, leading to routine indiscriminate treatment such as filling the depression or draining any water, which can be successful, ineffective, or harmful, depending on the mechanism involved. A number of types of openings are involved: open excavtions, leaking sewers and culverts, solution channels in limestones, enlarged joints, faults, mines, tunnels, porous lava, erosion caves, voids between boulders, and voids between large debris. The mechanisms responsible include stratum thinning (including consolidation, collapse, or plastic flow), chemical and biochenical action (including burning), lateral strain, loss of lateral support, collpase of an opening, and reveling or erosion. Various combinations of opening and mechanisms can produce similar effects, but the necessary corrective measures are often different. Moreover, subsidences due to other resemble those from openings. This paper briefly discusses these to show their similarities and differences. /Author/

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1976/612/612-001.pdf
• Record URL:
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Engineering Geology. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Sowers, George F
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 2-8
• Monograph Title: Subsidence over mines and caverns, moisture and frost actions, and classification
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 612
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Collapsible soils; Culverts; Erosion; Excavations; Mines; Openings; Plastic flow; Sewers; Soils; Subsidence (Geology); Tunnels; Underground structures; Void ratios
• Uncontrolled Terms: Lateral stress
• Old TRIS Terms: Underground; Void
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Geotechnology; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00158165
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309025885
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Sep 28 1977 12:00AM