Physical modeling of soil arching around shallow tunnels in sandy grounds

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 School of Mining Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Northern Kargar, Tehran, Iran

2 School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

The distribution of earth pressure surrounding a tunnel is one of the most critical factors in designing tunnel support systems. In this study, a physical modeling setup has been designed and constructed to simulate the excavation procedure of a full-face circular tunnel. Silica sand was used with four different densities and three different cover-to-tunnel diameter ratios. The full-face excavation was simulated with a variation of tunneling-induced volume loss. The variations of earth pressure around the tunnel were measured by means of a series of miniature soil pressure cells. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), as a non-destructive image processing technique, was used to monitor the deformation of the soil surrounding the tunnel. The results obtained from both pressure cells and PIV showed that soil arching developed around the tunnel. As tunnel convergence increased, a loosened zone appeared above the tunnel, surrounded by a stress arch. It was discovered that there is a direct relationship between the height of the loosened zone and the depth of the tunnel. A linear equation has been established for the estimation of the height of the loosened zone, which has a direct influence on the design of the support system.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] Balla, A. (1963). Rock pressure determined from shearing resistance'. Paper presented at the Proc. Int. Conf. Soil Mechanics, Budapest.
[2] Chen, C. N., Huang, W. Y., & Tseng, C. T. (2011). Stress redistribution and ground arch development during tunneling. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 26(1), 228-235. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2010.06.012
[3] Chen, R. P., Li, J., Kong, L. G., & Tang, L. j. (2013). Experimental study on face instability of shield tunnel in sand. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 33, 12-21. doi: http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.tust.2012.08.001
[4] Fraldi, M., & Guarracino, F. (2010). Analytical solutions for collapse mechanisms in tunnels with arbitrary cross sections. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 47(2), 216-223. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2009.09.028.
[5] Handy, R. L. (1985). The arch in soil arching. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering-Asce, 111(3), 302-318.
[6] I. Boonsiri, A., & Takemura, J. (2015). A Centrifuge Model Study on Pile Group Response to Adjacent Tunnelling in Sand. Japan Society of Civil Engineers, 3, 1-18.
[7] Ibrahim, E., Soubra, A. H., Mollon, G., Raphael, W., Dias, D., & Reda, A. (2015). Three-dimensional face stability analysis of pressurized tunnels driven in a multilayered purely frictional medium. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 49, 18-34. doi:10.1016/j.tust.2015.04.001
[8] Katoh, Y., Miyake, M., & Wada, M. (1998). Ground deformation around shield tunnel. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on Centrifuge Modelling (Centrifuge’98).
[9] Khosravi, M. H., Pipatpongsa, T., & Takemura, J. (2013). Experimental analysis of earth pressure against rigid retaining walls under translation mode. Geotechnique, 63(12), 1020.
[10] Khosravi, M. H., Pipatpongsa, T., Takahashi A. & Takemura, J. (2011). Arch action over an excavated pit in a stable scarp investigated by physical model tests. Soil and foundations, 51(4), 723-735.
[11] Khosravi, M. H., Takemura, J., Pipatpongsa, T., & Amini, M. (2016). In-flight excavation of slopes with potential failure planes. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 142(5), 06016001.
[12] Kirsch, A. (2010). Experimental investigation of the face stability of shallow tunnels in sand. Acta Geotechnica, 5(1), 43-62.
[13] Kirsch, G. (1898). Theory of elasticity and application in strength of materials. Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure, 42(29), 797-807.
[14] Krynine, D. P. (1945). Discussion of "Stability and Stiffness of Cellular Cofferdams". Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 10(1), 1175-1178.
[15] Lei, M., Peng, L., & Shi, C. (2015). Model test to investigate the failure mechanisms and lining stress characteristics of shallow buried tunnels under unsymmetrical loading. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 46, 64-75. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2014.11.003
[16] Lin, X. T., Chen, R. P., Wu, H. N., & Cheng, H. Z. (2019). Three-dimensional stress-transfer mechanism and soil arching evolution induced by shield tunneling in sandy ground. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 93, 103104. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2019.103104.
[17] Marshall, A., Farrell, R., Klar, A., & Mair, R. (2012). Tunnels in sands: the effect of size, depth and volume loss on greenfield displacements. Geotechnique, 62(5), 385.
[18] Marston, A., & Anderson, A. (1913). The theory of loads on pipes in ditches and tests on cement and clay drain tile and sewer pipe (Vol. 31). Bulletins of the Engineering Experiment.
[19] Mollon, G., Dias, D., & Soubra, A. H. (2011). Rotational failure mechanisms for the face stability analysis of tunnels driven by a pressurized shield. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 35(12), 1363-1388.
[20] Moussaei, N., Khosravi, M. H., & Hossaini, M. F. (2019). Physical modeling of tunnel induced displacement in sandy grounds. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 90, 19-27.
[21] Moussaei, N., Sharifzadeh, M., Sahriar, K., & Khosravi, M. H. (2019). A new classification of failure mechanisms at tunnels in stratified rock masses through physical and numerical modeling. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 91, 103017.
[22] Moussaei, N., Sharifzadeh, M., Shahriar, K., & Khosravi, M. (2016). Evaluation of discontinuity and opening geometry effects on roof beam deflection. Paper presented at the ISRM International Symposium-EUROCK 2016.
[23] Moussaei, N., Sharifzedeh, M., Sahriar, K., & Khosravi, M. H. (2018). On Stability of Shallow Tunnel by Model Test and Numerical Simulation. Paper presented at the Proceedings of China-Europe Conference on Geotechnical Engineering.
[24] Pan, Q., & Dias, D. (2017). Upper-bound analysis on the face stability of a non-circular tunnel. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 62, 96-102. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.tust.2016.11.010.
[25] Rezaei, M., Hossaini, M. F., Majdi, A., & Najmoddini, I. (2017). Determination of the height of destressed zone above the mined panel: An ANN model. International Journal of Mining and Geo-Engineering, 51(1), 1-7.
[26] Sveen, J. K. (2004). An introduction to MatPIV v. 1.6. 1. Preprint series. Mechanics and Applied Mathematics Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.. nb. no/URN: NBN: no-23418.
[27] Terzaghi, K. (1936). Stress distribution in dry and saturated sand above a yielding trap-door. Paper presented at the The First International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge.
[28] Terzaghi, K. (1943). Arching in ideal soils Theoretical soil mechanics. New York: Wiley.
[29] Yang, X. L., Yang, Z. H., Li, Y. X., & Li, S. C. (2013). Upper bound solution for supporting pressure acting on shallow tunnel based on modified tangential technique. Journal of Central South University, 20(12), 3676-3682. doi:10.1007/s11771-013-1895-y
[30] Zhang, C., Han, K., & Zhang, D. (2015). Face stability analysis of shallow circular tunnels in cohesive–frictional soils. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 50, 345-357. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.08.007.
International Journal of Mining and Geo-Engineering
Volume 56, Issue 4
December 2022
Pages 413-422

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics