Developing a Statistical Model for Building Settlement Prediction

Texas is well known for its complex soil conditions and corresponding building settlement issues. As a result, it is important to introduce to the students of Construction Science and Management (CSM) program the basic building settlement concepts including causes, consequences and treatments. One important topic is how the design of a building (e.g., height, weight and foundation types) affect building settlement on various types of soil. This requires the ability to calculate building settlement. However, theoretical models that are used in the geotechnical engineering area are too complicated to non-engineering students. This paper develops a statistical model to predict the building settlement. An interactive education tool has also been developed based on the statistical model, which is much easier for CSM students to explore the relationship between building & soil characteristics and building final settlement. The model and the tool will be tailored into the Construction Materials and Methods course at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a part of the soil and foundation topic.