Parametric Study on the Effect of Deep Excavation on the Adjacent Metro Station in Suzhou

This paper examines the response of metro stations adjacent to an excavation via a series of comprehensive finite element parametric studies. The effects of several key factors (e.g., the distance, D, between the existing metro station and the deep excavation, the depth of the excavation, He) governing the performance of the metro station were quantified. On the basis of the numerical analysis results, some major findings were obtained: (1) rotation of rail closer to the excavation transformed from the clockwise direction to the anticlockwise direction with the increasing of D / He; (2) as D / He increased, internal structural forces of juncture at roof slab and right wall decreased gradually and excessive internal structural force occurred when D / He was smaller than 0.7; and (3) conventional protection criteria of metro stations were not rational because they did not take into account the internal structural forces.