ABSTRACT
Underground mining activity induces ground deformations that may threaten the safety and serviceability of buildings. Current Polish guidelines, such as 364/2007, ITB Instruction specify threshold segment lengths of rigid buildings for which additional calculations of mining curvature effects are not required. In this study, more than 100 numerical FEM models were created to evaluate the relevance of these thresholds and to determine the structural response under different soil stiffness and curvature conditions. The results showed that in several cases, the tensile forces in floor ring beams exceeded the load-bearing capacity of the minimum rate of reinforcement prescribed in the ITB Instruction. Further analyses indicated that introducing the recommended 4 Ø 12 mm reinforcement or applying Eurocode 2 provisions significantly changes the permissible segment lengths, in some cases shortening them considerably. The research results suggest that the current ITB recommendations require updating and that numerical modeling provides a more reliable basis for assessing building safety in mining-affected areas.
