Search

• The damage cause of ground surface and tunnel lining during tunneling is studied. • The tunnel damages during tunneling in silty clay can be reasonably simulated. • The field monitored softening soil body has much influence on tunnel damages. This paper presents a case study of investigating the cause of tunnel damages during tunneling in silty clay, in which the damages are existed in both ground surface and tunnel lining. The study is implemented by field investigation and numerical back analysis to determine the cause of tunnel damages, in which the field observed funnel-shaped surface subsidence of ground and surrounding soil moving to the tunnel are considered as softening soil body from ground surface until surrounding rocks in the numerical model, and the material parameters of the field monitored softening soil body are respectively taken as 0.8 times and 0.6 times of the original ones. This work confirms that the field observed tunnel damages during tunneling in silty clay can be numerically simulated, which is significantly influenced by the field monitored softening soil body from ground surface until surrounding rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-layer tunnel lining using shotcrete has the significant advantages of reducing the tunnel excavation volume and saving construction materials, which has been gradually applied in tunnel construction. The high-performance concretes are generally adopted in single-layer tunnel lining for enhancing the bearing capacity of the tunnel lining, whereas the single-layer tunnel lining may still induce damages due to the adverse conditions such as shallow buried depth of the tunnel, and further study related to its application condition is thus required. This paper presents a study of the single-layer tunnel lining with shotcrete employed for supporting the large-span tunnel, in which the reinforcement ribs are also adopted in the single-layer lining for improving the lining stiffness and strength. The study is implemented using numerical simulation, focusing on the safety and performance variation of the single-layer tunnel lining influenced from the varied lining thicknesses and shallow buried depths of the tunnel. The results shows that the single-layer tunnel lining has the obvious advantage of toughness in significantly absorbing large deformation of surrounding rocks and improving the ability to resist lining cracking. The results also demonstrate that the single-layer tunnel lining with shotcrete and reinforcement ribs can safely support the large-span tunnel, in which the stability and safety of the large-span tunnel are confirmed from both the tunnel deformation and lining stresses. Moreover, the factors related to both the lining thickness and shallow buried depth of the tunnel have great influence on the single-layer tunnel lining with shotcrete and reinforcement ribs, in which the insufficient lining thickness and excessive shallow buried depth of the tunnel can induce the damages of the single-layer tunnel lining due to shotcrete stresses exceeding its strength. This study provides some references of employing the single-layer tunnel lining with shotcrete and reinforcement ribs for supporting large-span tunnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]