Yossef H Hatzor

This paper examines the expected settlement at the ground surface due to circular cavities in layered rock. We begin with two verifications of the Numerical Manifold Method (NMM): 1. the case of an infinite plate with a circular cavity (Kirsch solution). 2. The case of a layered plate subjected to gravity but with no cavity. This set of verification experiments allows us to proceed safely with exploration of boundary effects on the computed surface settlement.We show that due to an elastic rebound, total surface settlement decreases with increasing distance between the lower boundary of the model and the center of the cavity.