Experimental investigation of the effect of ground surcharge on the structural behavior of a quasi-rectangular tunnel

Abstract

The infrastructure in the urban core area is becoming increasingly dense, leading to restrictions on intensive development; however, there is a lack of adequate research on the structural mechanics of quasi-rectangular pipe jacking tunnels. This paper presents an experimental investigation that was conducted to analyze the impact of ground surcharge on the structural behavior of a quasi-rectangular tunnel located at Jing’an Temple station of Shanghai Rail Transit Line 14. The experimental setup included a scaled-down model of a quasi-rectangular tunnel, which was considered to be typical of underground structures. A series of tests were carried out by applying varying surcharge loads and eccentricities on the ground surface located above the tunnel. The tunnel structure’s response was monitored and analyzed through the use of earth pressure gauges, displacement sensors, and strain gauges. The experimental results revealed that ground surcharge on existing tunnels is mainly influenced by eccentricity and depth, with distinct effects at zero eccentricity and increasing eccentricity. Shallow tunnel burial depths intensify the impact of ground surcharge on the tunnel structure.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

quasi-rectangular pipe jacking / ground surcharge / model test / safety assessment / intensive construction technology

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Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-025-1148-9 and is accessible for authorized users.

Acknowledgements

Financial support, jointly provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2021YFE0114100) and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research (BMBWF) of Austria (No. CN11/2021) for the project “Intense Upgrades of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) and Demonstration of its Applicability to High-Quality Urban Development”, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1934210), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Nos. 21DZ1203505, 22DZ1203005, 21DZ1202803, and 21DZ1202806), and the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No. 22QB1405000) for their financial support of this work.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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