Numerical and Experimental Investigations Into the Interaction Between Surface Footings and Shallow Tunnels

Abstract

Tunnels are constructed to resolve sewerage and transportation problems and may pass under or near existing buildings. Construction of shallow tunnels in urban areas can result in significant ground movement and could damage the function of civil engineering structures if care is not undertaken. On the other hand, building of structures above existing tunnels could lead to an increase in the stresses within the soil mass, which in turn could increase stresses transferred to and deformation of the tunnel lining. The interaction between the surface footings and underground tunnels depends upon several factors including the relative dimensions of the surface footings and tunnel as well as depth and eccentricity of the proposed tunnel. This paper presents the results of numerical and experimental investigations undertaken to explore the interaction between surface loading and underground tunnels. Experimental results indicated that the deformation of the tunnel lining is significantly influenced by the pressure exerted on the surface footings. A finite element code "ABAQUS" is utilised to simulate the interaction between a surface footing and an underground tunnel. Results of the numerical simulations seem along the lines of the experimental ones.

Numerical Investigations of Footing Width Influence on the Surface Footing-Tunnel Interaction Analysis

“…In order to validate not only the material models and corresponding properties but also the analysis procedures; a validation stage is initially conducted by comparing the results of a series of physical tests undertaken by [8] with those obtained from a detailed numerical modeling of the same physical problem. This validation stage has been done successfully previously by [8]. This enabled a calibration of the model and material parameters.…”