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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Effect of Wall Deformation on Dewatering-Induced Ground Surface Settlement

In practice,dewatering for pressure relief is commonly undertaken during ongoing excavation to secure bottom stability against basal upheaval.Simultaneously,through unloading,wall deflection is obviously observed.Noticing that both cause soil deformations,this research is to study the effect of wall deformation on dewateringinduced settlement.A coupled numerical analysis of finite-difference software is employed to model Shanghai soft soils under multi-aquifer-aquitard systems(MAASs)by analyzing the results in association with an empirical approach.Consequently,through gradual force reduction,shear strength at soil-wall interface is significantly diminished.As wall deformation increases instantaneously upon lower loading,wall surface becomes deformedly bending;this condition causes the challenge to workability of shear strength.Moreover,wall deformation caused by unloading affects dewatering-induced settlement substantially.Under smaller loading,large wall deflection is observed;soil plane of failure caused by both sliding and compression occurs along slip curve,with weaker shear-strength soils at rD=0.4 and stronger shear-strength soils between rD=0.4 and rD=0.65,where rD is the distance from the wall that is normalized by the depth measured from ground surface.During dewatering,stronger soils tend to drag weaker soils upward to reduce large differential settlements caused by additional compression.Consequently,settlement becomes larger at rD=0.4 and smaller at rD=0.65.Remarkably,at rD>2.3,both settlement curves that result from numerical analysis and empirical method show overlapping;this indicates that the unloading effect on dewatering-induced settlement at rD>2.3 is insignificant.Furthermore,as wall reaches maximum allowable wall deflection by 67%applied force,additional compression caused by dewatering after loading remains smaller than that under 70%applied force,contributing to smaller dewatering-induced settlement.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Comparison of shallow tunneling method with pile and rib method for construction of subway station in soft ground

In the present study,a comparison between the new shallow tunneling method(STM)and the traditional pile and rib method(PRM)was conducted to excavate and construct subway stations in the geological conditions of Tehran.First,by selecting Station Z6 located in the Tehran Subway Line 6 as a case study,the construction process was analyzed by PRM.The maximum ground settlement of 29.84 mm obtained from this method was related to the station axis,and it was within the allowable settlement limit of 30 mm.The acceptable agreement between the results of numerical modeling and instrumentation data indicated the confirmation and accuracy of the excavation and construction process of Station Z6 by PRM.In the next stage,based on the numerical model validated by instrumentation data,the value of the ground surface settlement was investigated during the station excavation and construction by STM.The results obtained from STM showed a significant reduction in the ground surface settlement compared to PRM.The maximum settlement obtained from STM was 6.09 mm as related to the front of the excavation face.Also,the sensitivity analysis results denoted that in addition to controlling the surface settlement by STM,it is possible to optimize some critical geometric parameters of the support system during the station excavation and construction.