Cracking of RC School Building Due to Soil Expansion

The geotechnical investigations, the structural analyses and the remedial measures of a cracked reinforced concrete school building are presented in this paper. The building is located in Irbid, Jordan, where the soil is highly expansive and the volume change of the soil causes major destruction in the buildings in the area. Field and laboratory tests were performed on the foundation soil of the building to determine its swell potential and other engineering properties. The school building is modeled as a 3-D finite element model using Sap2000 code. The model is built based on results of geotechnical investigation. The results revealed structural deficiencies in building members (columns, beams and footings) due to the swelling gradient. Remedial measures were proposed and implemented to rehabilitate and strengthen the overstressed members. The repaired school has been under service since 2003. The school building performance is being under monitoring since then and has shown reliable performance.