Reliability analysis and updating of excavation-induced ground settlement for building serviceability assessment

In this paper, the excavation-induced settlement determined by the KJHH model, a recently developed semiempirical model, is used to assess the serviceability reliability of adjacent buildings. The calculated settlement, considered as the load in the context of reliability analyses in this paper, is compared with a tolerable settlement, considered as the resistance herein. The reliability of the adjacent building against "damage" (defined herein as the violation of serviceability requirements such as having intolerable settlement) is first analyzed and the probability of exceedance (i.e., exceeding the tolerable settlement) is calculated. Furthermore, as the excavation proceeds, observed settlement at the current excavation stage is used to update the prediction of settlement at subsequent stages, and the probability of exceedance is updated accordingly.