Failure mechanism of large-diameter shield tunnels and its effects on ground surface settlements

A new technique for the analysis of the three-dimensional collapse failure mechanism and the ground surface settlements for the large-diameter shield tunnels were presented.The technique is based on a velocity field model using more different truncated solid conical blocks to clarify the multiblock failure mechanism.Furthermore,the shape of blocks between the failure surface and the tunnel face was considered as an entire circle,and the supporting pressure was assumed as non-uniform distribution on the tunnel face and increased with the tunnel embedded depth.The ground surface settlements and failure mechanism above large-diameter shield tunnels were also investigated under different supporting pressures by the finite difference method.

Effect of the overconsolidation ratio of soils in surface settlements due to tunneling

Construction of urban tunnels requires the control of surface subsidence to minimize any disturbance to nearby buildings and services. Past study of surface subsidence has been limited to mainly empirical solutions based on field studies, and very few analytical studies have been carried out. The available analytical solutions are not sufficient to include complex ground conditions; hence, a comprehensive analytical solution coupled with numerical modeling is necessary to model the effect of surface subsidence due to tunneling. This paper presents the results of modeling of surface settlements due to tunneling using the finite element method. The effect of the overconsolidation ratio of soils expressed in terms of the co- efficient of earth pressure at rest （K0） on surface subsidence due to tunneling is investigated. It is demonstrated that surface settlements appear to be sensitive to K0 values, and for geotechnical calculations pertaining to overconsolidated sand and clay soil, K0 values of 0.6 and 0.8, respectively, are proposed.

Surface settlements induced by twin tunneling in silty sand

Surface settlements caused by twin tunneling are a major interest in underground space engineering.Most prevailing studies have investigated the surface settlements observed over twin tunnels constructed in clay.Yet,less attention is given to the twin tunnels exca-vated in silty sand,which is the focus of this study.A comprehensive field monitoring scheme was designed in the Hangzhou metro line six project to measure the surface settlements during twin tunneling by adopting earth pressure balance shields.The influence of four shield operational parameters,namely,face pressure,tail grouting pressure,penetration rate,and pitching angle on the surface settle-ments due to twin tunneling are explored.In general,the total settlement profiles observed over twin tunnels follow an inverted bimodal shape.The post-settlement observed over the 1^(st)tunnel due to the 2^(nd)tunnel excavation is non-trivial when the twin tunnels are spaced closely.Low face pressure and tail grouting pressure can induce excessive peak surface settlements during twin tunneling in silty sand.

Shallow Tunneling Method and Control Measure for Ground Surface Settlement

In order to ensure that the tunnel deformation and surface settlement are controlled within the allowable range during the construction process,the design unit has compiled technical measures and monitoring schemes for ground settlement control of this project.Based on the example of a shallow tunneling project on Subway line 8,this paper analyzes and discusses the shallow tunneling method in detail and puts forward corresponding technical measures for ground settlement control.

Calculation of maximum surface settlement induced by EPB shield tunnelling and introducing most effective parameter

This study aims to predict ground surface settlement due to shallow tunneling and introduce the most affecting parameters on this phenomenon.Based on data collected from Shanghai LRT Line 2 project undertaken by TBM-EPB method,this research has considered the tunnel's geometric,strength,and operational factors as the dependent variables.At first,multiple regression(MR) method was used to propose equations based on various parameters.The results indicated the dependency of surface settlement on many parameters so that the interactions among different parameters make it impossible to use MR method as it leads to equations of poor accuracy.As such,adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system(ANFIS),was used to evaluate its capabilities in terms of predicting surface settlement.Among generated ANFIS models,the model with all input parameters considered produced the best prediction,so as its associated R^2 in the test phase was obtained to be 0.957.The equations and models in which operational factors were taken into consideration gave better prediction results indicating larger relative effect of such factors.For sensitivity analysis of ANFIS model,cosine amplitude method(CAM) was employed; among other dependent variables,fill factor of grouting(n) and grouting pressure(P) were identified as the most affecting parameters.

Analysis of ground surface settlement in anisotropic clays using extreme gradient boosting and random forest regression models

Excessive ground surface settlement induced by pit excavation(i.e.braced excavation) can potentially result in damage to the nearby buildings and facilities.In this paper,extensive finite element analyses have been carried out to evaluate the effects of various structural,soil and geometric properties on the maximum ground surface settlement induced by braced excavation in anisotropic clays.The anisotropic soil properties considered include the plane strain shear strength ratio(i.e.the ratio of the passive undrained shear strength to the active one) and the unloading shear modulus ratio.Other parameters considered include the support system stiffness,the excavation width to excavation depth ratio,and the wall penetration depth to excavation depth ratio.Subsequently,the maximum ground surface settlement of a total of 1479 hypothetical cases were analyzed by various machine learning algorithms including the ensemble learning methods(extreme gradient boosting(XGBoost) and random forest regression(RFR)algorithms).The prediction models developed by the XGBoost and RFR are compared with that of two conventional regression methods,and the predictive accuracy of these models are assessed.This study aims to highlight the technical feasibility and applicability of advanced ensemble learning methods in geotechnical engineering practice.

Limit analysis of supporting pressure in tunnels with regard to surface settlement

The proliferation of Hoek-Brown nonlinear failure criterion and upper bound theorem makes it possible to evaluate the stability of circular tunnels with an original curved collapsing mechanism. The arch effect of shallow circle tunnel is not taken into consideration so that the mechanical characteristics can be easily described. Based on the mechanism, the upper bound solution of supporting pressure of tunnels under the condition of surface settlements and overloads on the ground surface is derived. The objective function is formed from virtual work equations under the variational principle, and solutions are presented by the optimum theory. Comparisons with previous works are made. The numerical results of the present method show great agreement with those of existing ones. With regard to the surface settlement and overloads, the influence of different rock parameters on the collapsing shape is analyzed.

Comparison of machine learning methods for ground settlement prediction with different tunneling datasets

This study integrates different machine learning(ML) methods and 5-fold cross-validation(CV) method to estimate the ground maximal surface settlement(MSS) induced by tunneling.We further investigate the applicability of artificial intelligent(AI) based prediction through a comparative study of two tunnelling datasets with different sizes and features.Four different ML approaches,including support vector machine(SVM),random forest(RF),back-propagation neural network(BPNN),and deep neural network(DNN),are utilized.Two techniques,i.e.particle swarm optimization(PSO) and grid search(GS)methods,are adopted for hyperparameter optimization.To assess the reliability and efficiency of the predictions,three performance evaluation indicators,including the mean absolute error(MAE),root mean square error(RMSE),and Pearson correlation coefficient(R),are calculated.Our results indicate that proposed models can accurately and efficiently predict the settlement,while the RF model outperforms the other three methods on both datasets.The difference in model performance on two datasets(Datasets A and B) reveals the importance of data quality and quantity.Sensitivity analysis indicates that Dataset A is more significantly affected by geological conditions,while geometric characteristics play a more dominant role on Dataset B.

Prediction of land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation in Hanoi, Vietnam, using multifactorial correlation analysis

Multifactorial correlation analysis is a new method used to predict the land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation This article introduces and applies the method to establish the function of the surface settlement rate （Vs） and the function of the time-dependent surface settlement （St） caused by groundwater exploitation, based on data acquired at three land subsidence monitoring stations in the Hanoi area of Vietnam. Comparison with actual monitoring data indicates that the prediction results are relatively close to the monitoring data. From this, we conclude that multifactorial correlation analysis is a reliable method and can be used to predict future land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation in Hanoi.

Kinematic analysis of shallow tunnel in layered strata considering joined effects of settlement and seepage

The purpose of this work is to predict the state of collapse in shallow tunnel in layered strata by using a new curved failure mechanism within the framework of upper bound theorem.Particular emphasis is first given to consider the effects of seepage forces and surface settlement.Furthermore,the Hoek-Brown nonlinear failure criterion is adopted to analyze the influence of different factors on the collapsing shape.Two different curve functions which describe two different rock layers are obtained by virtual work equations under the variational principle.According to the numerical results,the parameter B in Hoek-Brown failure criterion and the unit weights in different rock layers have a positive relationship with the size of collapsing block while pore pressure coefficient and the parameter A in Hoek-Brown failure criterion present a reverse tend.

Catastrophe stability analysis for shallow tunnels considering settlement

Limit analysis of the stability of geomechanical projects is one of the most difficult problems.This work investigates the influences of different parameters in NL failure strength on possible collapsing block shapes of single and twin shallow tunnels with considering the effects of surface settlement.Upper bound solutions derived by functional catastrophe theory are used for describing the distinct characteristics of falling blocks of different parts in twin tunnels.Furthermore the analytical solutions of minimum supporting pressures in shallow tunnels are obtained by the help of the variational principle.Lastly,the comparisons are made both in collapsed mechanism and stability factor with different methods.According to the numerical results in this work,the influences of different parameters on the size of collapsing block are presented in the tables and the limit supporting loads are illustrated in the form graphs that account for the surface settlement.

Ground movement induced by triple stacked tunneling with different construction sequences

This study tried to explore the ground movement induced by triple stacked tunneling(TST) with different construction sequences. A case study in Tianjin, China was used to investigate the ground movement during the TST(upper tunneling(UT)). For this, a modified Peck formula was proposed to predict the surface settlement induced by TST. Next, three sets of finite element analyses(FEA) were used to compare the effects of construction sequences(i.e. UT, middle tunneling(MT), and lower tunneling(LT)) on vertical and lateral ground displacements. The results of Tianjin case and UT reveal that compared to a Gaussian distribution for a single tunnel, the surface settlement curve of triple stacked tunnels is a bimodal distribution. It seems that the proposed modified Peck formula can effectively predict the surface settlement induced by TST. The results of the three sets of FEA demonstrate that the construction sequence has a significant influence on the ground movement. Among the three construction sequences, the largest lateral displacement is observed in the MT and the smallest one in UT.The existing tunnel has an inhibitory effect on the vertical displacement. The maximum value of the lateral displacement occurs at the depth of the new tunnel in each construction sequence.

Numerical simulation for settlement urban tunnel construction

The excavation for the municipal tunnel will disturb the soil around the tunnel,and the deformation and subsidence of the earth surface always take place,which may lead to instability and even collapse for the building above the tunnel. At the same time the deformation and subsidence of the earth surface affect the normal use of underground municipal pipelines,and may cause the road sudden collapse,leading to significantly traffic accidents. The authors did a research by simulating for the excavation of municipal tunnel and designed the related supporting plan,and put forward some suggestions and measures for the design and construction of urban tunnel.

Surface settlement induced by horizontal directional drilling

Horizontal directional drilling(HDD)is a widely used trenchless method for underground utility connections.The associated ground settlement triggered by HDD depends on the size,types,and surface texture of pipe,diameter of borehole,and soil conditions.The pre-sent study investigates the surface settlement due to the construction of a 1067 mm diameter HDD,which will replace an existing sewer siphon under the SR-60 highway in Chino,California using empirical,and numerical methods.Based on the results obtained from the subsurface investigation,an empirical analysis was conducted first.followed by numerical modeling of the HDD using PLAXIS 2D soft-ware.A careful comparison between two different methods indicated closer values of surface settlement between the empirical method(7.3 mm)and the numerical modeling(4.6 mm).In addition,the shape of surface settlement and horizontal settlement curves for the empirical and numerical methods was found to be similar.The minor discrepancy between the two methods resulted as the numerical model can host several soil layers whereas the empirical equation can use only one type of soil.Finally,a parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effect of borehole cover depth,size,and soil parameters on surface settlement.It was observed that soil strength param-eters yielded a greater effect on surface movement,whereas modulus of elasticity has a relatively smaller influence with zero contribution from Poisson’s ratio.

Ground settlement sedimentation time-space effect and ground settlement control standards

Since different underground engineering contains different geological conditions,structure and excavation methods,their disturbing degree on the ground also differs,but ground surface settlement caused by excavation has one common point that they will form a ground surface settlement curve.Based on data statistical analysis,the article puts forward the relationship between point of inflection in digging tunnels with shallowburied method and the span of tunnel excavation against typical geological conditions in Changchun so as to predict the impact of tunnel excavation and improve reasonable ground surface settlement control standard.Research result will be useful for study on ground surface control standard in digging tunnels with shallow-buried method and setting settlement standard.

Numerical investigation of tunneling induced surface movement:A case study of MRT line 1,Dhaka

The proposed underground tunnel for Mass Rapid Transit Line 1,Dhaka brings immense attention to the engineers and experts not only because of its construction challenges through a densely-built city,but also for the potential tunneling-induced ground settlements.This very preliminary study investigates the ground surface movement due to the progression of the tunnel boring machine(TBM)using numerical analysis.A series of finite element(FE)models have been developed using PLAXIS 3D,in which Mohr–Coulomb(MC),modified Cam-Clay(MCC),and hardening soil(HS)have been considered.The in-field data of Mashhad Metro Line-2 have been compared to verify PLAXIS 3D’s efficacy in tunnel modeling.Subsequently,the outcomes of the FE analyses are compared with the existing empirical formulas.The PLAXIS 3D analysis considering the MCC soil model exhibits strong agreement with the real monitored data,with a variance of only 3.85%.After simulating different stages of the tunnel construction,results are reported in terms of the distance of the inflexion point from the center,the settlement trough pattern,the maximum transverse settlements,and the vertical settlements.They are also compared with the established empirical formula.In order to comprehend the surface settlement with various tunnel depths and diameters,a parameter dependency study has been carried out.The analysis findings showed that increasing the TBM’s depth and radius causes the inflexion point’s distance from the center of the tunnel to increase by 4%and decrease by 5%,respectively.It is also observed that as tunnel depth increases,the overall settlement of the tunnel lowers by 11%for every additional 5 meters of depth.The MCC model,out of the three,exhibits the most accurate value of the settlement compared to that obtained from the empirical solutions,and also the best-fit form to the Gaussian curve.

Predictions of ground surface settlement for shield tunnels in sandy cobble stratum based on stochastic medium theory and empirical formulas

This paper focuses on the prediction of ground surface settlement induced by shield tunnelling in sandy cobble stratum.Based on the stochastic medium theory,an analytical solution to predict the surface settlement is developed considering the difference between soil and tunnel volume loss.Then,the effects of tunnel geometries,influence angle and volume loss on the characteristics of surface settlement are discussed.Through back analysis,a total of 103 groups of field monitoring data of surface settlement induced by shield tunnelling in sandy cobble stratum are examined to investigate the statistical characteristics of the maximum settlement,settlement trough width and volume loss.An empirical prediction is presented based on the results of back analysis.Finally,the analytical solution and empirical expression are validated by the comparisons with the results of model tests and field monitoring.Results show that the soil at ground surface has an overall dilative response for most of the shield tunnelling in sandy cobble stratum.In addition,the developed analytical solution is applicable and reasonable for surface settlement prediction.Meanwhile,the proposed empirical formula also shows good per-formance in some cases,providing an approach or a reference for engineering designers to preliminarily evaluate the surface settlement.

Construction of shallow buried large-span metro stations using the small pipe roof-beam method

In relation to the Shifu Road Station project on Line 4 of the Shenyang Metro in China,a small-pipe roof-beam method for constructing subway stations is presented.First,a numerical simulation was performed to optimize the supporting parameters of the proposed method and determine the design scheme.Subsequently,the deformation of the pipe roof and surface settlement during the construction process were investigated.Finally,the surface settlement attributed to the excavation was studied through field monitoring,and the proposed method was compared with other methods.The results show that an increase in the pipe-roof spacing has little effect on the surface settlement and piperoof deformation.The bearing capacity of the pipe roof can be efficiently utilized once the flexural stiffness reaches 2EI,and the flexural stiffness is not the dominant factor controlling the deformation.The essential stages in controlling surface settlement are the excavations of the transverse pilot tunnels and the soil between them.The final settlement value of the ground was 24.1 mm,resulting in a reduction in the construction period by at least five months while satisfying the control requirements.

Surface settlement caused by twin-parallel shield tunnelling in sandy cobble strata

City metro tunnels are usually constructed as twin-parallel tunnels and their adjacent construction may lead to surface deformation,affecting the surface environment and the safety of the tunnels.Due to its strong dispersion,sandy cobble strata can be easily disturbed by shield tunneling.Based on the project of the Chengdu Metro Line 1,field and model tests were carried out to study the surface settlement caused by shield tunneling in sandy cobble strata by measuring surface settlement curves,ground loss ratios and construction influence zones.The discrete element method(DEM) was used to study the factors affecting the formation of ground arches in sandy cobble strata at the microscopic level.Results show that the shape of the surface settlement curve in sandy cobble strata is different from that in soft soil.The buried depth and clear spacing of the two tunnels had a significant impact on the formation of ground arches.

Soft computing approach for prediction of surface settlement induced by earth pressure balance shield tunneling

Estimating surface settlement induced by excavation construction is an indispensable task in tunneling,particularly for earth pressure balance(EPB)shield machines.In this study,predictive models for assessing surface settlement caused by EPB tunneling were established based on extreme gradient boosting(XGBoost),artificial neural network,support vector machine,and multivariate adaptive regression spline.Datasets from three tunnel construction projects in Singapore were used,with main input parameters of cover depth,advance rate,earth pressure,mean standard penetration test(SPT)value above crown level,mean tunnel SPT value,mean moisture content,mean soil elastic modulus,and grout pressure.The performances of these soft computing models were evaluated by comparing predicted deformation with measured values.Results demonstrate the acceptable accuracy of the model in predicting ground settlement,while XGBoost demonstrates a slightly higher accuracy.In addition,the ensemble method of XGBoost is more computationally efficient and can be used as a reliable alternative in solving multivariate nonlinear geo-engineering problems.