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Title: Lifting and protecting residential structures from subsidence damage using airbags

Conference ·
OSTI ID:361668
;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Conventional practice in protecting residential structures from subsidence damage concentrates on saving the superstructure. The foundation is sacrificed, even though it represents the structural component with the greatest replacement cost. In this study, airbags were used to lift a 20 ft x 30 ft structure to test their ability to protect both the foundation and superstructure from ground settlement. Two contiguous sides of the test foundation were unreinforced, and the other two contiguous sides incorporated footing and wall reinforcement. The airbags successfully lifted the structure without causing damage, even on the unreinforced sides. This paper gives a procedure for determining airbag spacing, and describes installation and operation techniques of the airbags. The paper then focuses on the performance of the airbags in lifting the structure, and shows that airbags can preserve existing foundations during subsidence movements.

OSTI ID:
361668
Report Number(s):
CONF-9805185-; TRN: IM9933%%49
Resource Relation:
Conference: 15. American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation (ASSMR) annual national meeting, St. Louis, MO (United States), 17-21 May 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 15. annual national meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation. Mining -- Gateway to the future; Throgmorton, D.; Nawrot, J.; Mead, J.; Galetovic, J.; Joseph, W. [eds.]; PB: 801 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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