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Underground infrastructures are becoming increasingly important components of modern traffic concepts worldwide. This includes, in particular, investigations of the stability of tunnel faces, material models for subsoil behavior, damage analysis of tunnel linings and supports as well as process-oriented simulation models for mechanized shield driving. Due to the strong interaction between the individual tasks in mechanized tunneling, the exchange of data and the interplay of components in simulation, the Collaborative Research Center SFB 837 has been established at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. In this paper a brief overview on the 14 sub-projects in the SFB 837 addressing one of the characteristic research areas in underground engineering is given. The main part of the paper deals with key sub-projects solely dedicated to the computer-supported integration, visualization and interaction of related models and information.

Structural optimization encompasses much more than just solving numerical optimization problems. As computer capabilities increase, the entire process of modeling structural optimization problems must be considered. In particular, the creation, transformation and evaluation of the underlying concepts, rather than just brute numerical power, are becoming a more and more dominant factor in finding safe-guarded solutions. In this paper a layer-based model of the total structural optimization process is presented. Each layer contains individual components, a major number of which are of non-numerical nature.Computerization of the non-numerical components requires new programming paradigms. The selection of an appropriate optimization method, to be discussed as a typical non-numerical problem, is difficult because a wide variety of distinct methods exist. Therefore, automated assistance based upon experience and knowledge gained through current research is of prime interest.