Upper bound analysis of tunnel face stability in layered soils

The working face of tunnel constructions has to be kept stable during tunneling to prevent large soil deformations or fatal failure. In layered soils with lower cohesion, failures happen more often and more abrupt than in cohesive soils. Therefore, the maintenance of a proper support pressure at the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta geotechnica 2014-08, Vol.9 (4), p.661-671
Main Authors: Tang, Xiao-Wu, Liu, Wei, Albers, Bettina, Savidis, Stavros
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cohesion
Cohesive soils
Complex Fluids and Microfluidics
Deformation
Engineering
Failure
Foundations
Geoengineering
Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences
Hydraulics
Layered soils
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Research Paper
Soft and Granular Matter
Soil Science & Conservation
Soils
Solid Mechanics
Stability
Tunnel construction
Tunnels
Tunnels (transportation)
Upper bounds
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Summary:The working face of tunnel constructions has to be kept stable during tunneling to prevent large soil deformations or fatal failure. In layered soils with lower cohesion, failures happen more often and more abrupt than in cohesive soils. Therefore, the maintenance of a proper support pressure at the tunnel working face is of high importance. In this paper, an upper bound analysis is introduced to investigate the minimum support pressure for the face stability in layered soils. A three-dimensional kinematically admissible mechanism for the upper bound analysis is improved to model potential failure within different soil layers. An analytical solution for the support pressure assessment is achieved. The influence of the crossing and cover soil on the face stability is analyzed, respectively. This solution provides an analytical estimation of the minimum support pressure for the face stability. It may be used as a reference for projects under similar conditions.
ISSN:1861-1125
1861-1133
DOI:10.1007/s11440-013-0256-1