An Assessment of Damage to Large-Scale Basement Slab Caused by Groundwater and Expansive Soil

Cracking damage is a common phenomenon in large-scale concrete structure. But for the underground structure it is not permitted because crack will cause heavily damage and other disasters. With the aid of finite element method for deformation and stress field simulation, a detailed study is carried out for a large area foundation slab of an underground parking lot. The foundation soil condition and the hydrogeological condition are the principal influence factors that result in the cracking problems. The simulation results illustrate that the combined effects of foundation settlement and larger groundwater pressure cause the foundation slab cracking and the existence of expansive soil indeed exacerbates the problem.