Theoretical prediction of ground settlements due to shield tunneling in multi-layered soils considering process parameters

Abstract

This paper conducts a theoretical analysis of ground settlements due to shield tunneling in multi-layered soils which are usually encountered in urban areas. The proposed theoretical solution which is based on the general form of the Mindlin's solution and Loganathan-Poulos formula can comprehensively consider the in-process tunneling parameters including: unbalanced face pressure, shield-soil friction, unbalanced tail grouting pressure, unbalanced secondary grouting pressure, overloading during tunneling and the ground volume loss. The method is verified by comparing with the field data from the Qinghuayuan Tunnel Project in terms of the ground surface settlements along the longitudinal and transverse direction. Due to the local settlement or heave caused by the certain tunneling parameters, the ground surface settlements calculated using current solution along the longitudinal direction presents an irregular S-shaped curve instead of the traditional S-shaped curve. Results also find that the effect of the unbalanced secondary grouting pressure and the overloading during tunneling cannot be ignored.

Keywords

Tunneling / Shield / Ground settlements / Theoretical analysis / Urban areas / Multi-layered soils / Qinghuayuan Tunnel

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52108376, 51738002, and 52090084), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2022 T150436).

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