Resumen de Comparison of settlements by geodetic methods and numerical modeling. Test case: fuel storage tank

Luis Enrique Acosta González, Fabian Ricardo Ojeda Pardo, Orlando Belete Fuentes, Javier Alejandro Pérez Fernández

• This research project addresses the necessity to update the admissible values of defor-mations, set by the rules for the design of foundations, based on the comparative analysis of settlements determined by direct (geodetic) methods on conditions of field, with the vertical displacements obtained by the ¨deterministic¨ numerical modeling by the finite element method (FEM). In order to, a shallow foundation of a tank for the storage of fuel was selected as a case study. In addition, the geodetic measurements made during the water load test were taken as a reference pattern, using the high precision geometric leveling and the soft-ware SIGMA / W module of the GeoStudio 2012 was used to perform the calculation of verti-cal displacements. The comparison was carried out with respect to the absolute maximum settlement, for different time intervals and load steps; observing an acceptable correlation between the settlements measured and those calculated by numerical modeling, evidencing the feasibility of using this software for the forecast of settlements. This investigation pro-vides valuable information on the real deformations, for the control of works during the con-struction and operation processes. The results allow the improvement of the methods of cal-culation and design of foundations based on the limit state of deformation, as well as alert-ing about the operational safety of this type of work in the Cuban industry. The use of the geodesic method allows to check the software parameters and to adjust the limit values of the displacements fixed in the current regulations.