Abstract: To study the influence of the variation of the groundwater level on the damage of high-rise building substructures, this paper investigates potential factors. Throughout the literature review and comparative analysis, this paper presents the erosion of the pile foundation caused by the groundwater, damage of underground structure caused by the groundwater fluctuation, the settlement of the underground structure and coordinated deformation of underground structure system. The results show that: (1) the finite element analysis of the variation of the groundwater level on the underground structure, such as water level withdrew process after the groundwater level rise, needs further experimental and simulation studies; (2) reasonable design of basement, timely reduce the impact of rising groundwater level; (3) The variation of the groundwater level will cause the settlement of the foundation and irregular deformation of the underground structure; (4) considering the interaction between the components in the design will have a satisfactory effect on the practical engineering analysis.

Key words: Underground Structures, Groundwater Level, Basement, Finite Element