Geotechnical causes of damages for the Parliament building in Belgrade

Abstract

The Parliament building of the Republic of Serbia is one of the biggest and most beautiful cultural monuments in Serbia from the first half of 20th century. Right now, there are numerous structural damages over the building. In order to define remedial measures for rehabilitation of the Parliament building, it was necessary to carry out detailed geotechnical investigations. These investigations were performed by the Faculty of Mining and Geology, University in Belgrade. Thus, geotechnical properties of the terrain in a zone of its interaction with the building were defined according to the obtained results. The bearing capacity of foundation soil and settlements of footings were calculated, too. These analyses showed that the existing footings loads values are less than allowable values, but the settlements of footings are much larger than it is allowable, and it is a main reason of the structural damages over the building. The settlements were determined by two methods: conventional and finite element. The obtained values are very close. In addition, by the finite element analysis it was concluded that the building has no resistance to the effects of earthquakes. Remedial measures were proposed on the basis of these results, and in cooperation with engineers responsible for rehabilitation of the structure. These measures permanently solve the problems related to the static and dynamic stability of the Parliament building from the geotechnical point of view.

Dom Narodne skupštine je jedan od najznačajnijih spomenika kulture u Srbiji iz prve polovine dvadesetog veka. Na njemu su uočena brojna oštećenja i u cilju njegove sanacije bilo je neophodno izvođenje detaljnih geotehničkih istraživanja koja je izvršio Rudarsko-geološki fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu. Ovim istraživanjima definisana su geotehnička svojstva terena u zoni njegove interakcije sa objektom, a određena su i sleganja temelja i nosivost temeljnog tla. Utvrđeno je da su stvarna opterećenja temelja manja od dozvoljenih, ali da su sleganja temelja višestruko veća od dopuštenih i da je to glavni uzrok oštećenja objekta. Ova sleganja su određena konvencionalnom metodom i metodom konačnih elemenata i dobijeni su slični rezultati. Osim toga, analizom sa konačnim elementima, utvrđeno je i da objekat ne zadovoljava uslove stabilnosti u slučaju dejstva zemljotresa. Stoga su, u saradnji sa projektantom sanacije objekta, predložene sanacione mere koje sa geotehničkog aspekta trajno rešavaju probleme kako statičke tako i dinamičke stabilnosti Doma Narodne skupštine u Beogradu.