Page 1 of 7
European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 12, No. 6
Publication Date: December 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/aivp.126.17895.
Barraza, J. A. (2024). Controlled Impact Technique for the Correction of the Verticality of Part-Collapsed Buildings with Semi- Compensated Foundations in the Lake Zone of Mexico City. European Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(6). 448-454.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Controlled Impact Technique for the Correction of the Verticality
of Part-Collapsed Buildings with Semi-Compensated Foundations
in the Lake Zone of Mexico City
Julio A. Barraza
ORCID: 0000-0002-3807-4502
División de Ingenierías Civil y Geomática,
Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad, Nacional
Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México
ABSTRACT
The article presents a new technique for the correction of the verticality of part
collapsed buildings in the lake zone of Mexico City, the technique was conceived
from the study of the deformation properties of the Mexico city subsoil and the
behavior of the clays deposits of this city under cyclic loads, for buildings with
similar foundations geometry that presents complex problems of differential
settlements in this geotechnical zone. The problematic and properties of the
subsoil where analyzed to design this technique that use mechanics procedures
and geotechnical machines and conditions of load that are representable with
laboratory. Also is presented a theoretical analysis of the condition of load for the
process of this technique and the technical application procedure.
Keywords: Differential settlement Recovery, Settlements, Foundations.
INTRODUCTION
A high number of parts collapsed buildings in the lake zone of Mexico City has service failures
(loss of the verticality). The deformation properties and resistance of the clay’s deposits with
60m deep approx. in the downtown zone, the geohydrological and seismic activity of the zone
are some of the main factors with influences in this matter. There are registered differential
settlements in buildings over 1m, differential settlements about 30cm are commonly in the
downtown zone. An original technique, focused in the exceptional water content property of
the clays in this zone is presented to fix and treat this problematic within an geotechnical
engineering scope.
BACKGROUND AND PROBLEMATIC
Several studies present the causes of part collapsed buildings in the lake zone of Mexico City.
An a not correct determinación of the foundation dimentions (excentrics loads), a not correct
determination of the high compressibility of the clay’s deposits, but the presences of shallow
water wells, and the constant seismic activity are the main factors. The combination of these
factors increases the problematic. The figure 1 shows the problematic of water wells in the
lake zone of Mexico City. The image shows a steel casing, that was used as a part of a water
well on the deep sand layers of the city. The constant pumping causes a long term, by
consolidation, what is known as regional settlement, visible in the image. The ground has
Page 2 of 7
449
Barraza, J. A. (2024). Controlled Impact Technique for the Correction of the Verticality of Part-Collapsed Buildings with Semi-Compensated
Foundations in the Lake Zone of Mexico City. European Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(6). 448-454.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.126.17895
settled around of the steel casing more than 5m. due to the high compressibility of the clays
deposits, this in the zone of revolution monument plaza.
Figure 1: An old steel casing, part of a water well, exposed due to the consolidation of the
subsoil
The water wells that pump water from the shallow sand layers have a radius of influence and
it is caused a change in effective stress state, see figure 2. If the water well is located beside of
a building or structure, would provoke differential settlements in the structure and in several
cases the loss of the verticality.
Figure 2: Piezometry, Doctores neighborhood,
México city. Ingeniería Geotecnica y
Construción 2010 [1]
Figure 3: Piezometry, Tabacalera
neighborhood, México city. Ingeniería
Geotecnica y Construción 2011 [2]
Page 3 of 7
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom 450
European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 12, Issue 6, December-2024
The Figures 2 and 3 show the results of the instrumentation with a piezocone for geotechnical
design in the lake zone of Mexico City. In the image it is shown that the water pressure at
more of 30m deep is minor than the hydrostatic pressure, this change in the effective stress
state is what it cause the regional settlement and the total and differential settlements.
During the earthquakes of September 19th 1985 was possible to observe the response and
behavior of different types of foundations in the whole city. In [3] is exposed a detailed
resume of the foundations and it is behavior during this exceptional earthquake, the
differential and total settlements of the part and total collapsed buildings. [4] and [5] are
outstanding examples of laboratory apparatus and procedures, thinked for deformation and
resistance properties of the Mexico City clay under cyclic loads. From these procedures was
find that the resistance of the clays of Mexico City were abruptly affected from the 80% of the
resistance established in the experiment, but the consolidation process was lightly affected by
cyclic loads, the variable time was just lightly affected.
SOIL PROPERTIES AND TYPE OF DEPOSITS OF MEXICO CITY
The subsoil of Mexico City is conformed by a clay deposit of lake formation with volcanic
origin, in the downtown the average deep is 60m with thin layers of sand and volcanic ashes,
located at different deeps. [6] contains the most common wide studies of the Mexico City
subsoil. In these sand layers are placed de piles of the deep foundations of the city. Figure 4
shows a stratigraphic cut based in the stratigraphic cut of Mooser. The clays deposits presents
water contents higher of 300%, volumetric weights around 1.2t/m3 and compression index of
10. These clays are anisotropic with complex resistance and deformation properties [7]. In
these clays with water contents over 300% is where the problematic is located, the expulsion
of water in these layers is what cause the differential settlements, some of these registered of
more than 1m.
Figure 4: Stratigraphic cut of the México City subsoil, based in the stratigraphic cut of Mooser
(SMMS, 1994) [8].
These conditions require a high quality in; sample extraction, test laboratory, design and very
high supervision during the construction process and once the construction is finished.
OTHER METHODS
A lot of previous works have been done, trying to correct the loss of verticality of buildings,
many of these methods consist on hand workers process or empirical techniques.