Dynamic collapse characteristics of the tunnel face induced by the shutdown of earth pressure balance shields (EPB): A 3D material point method study

Abstract

The collapse of the tunnel face is a prevalent geological disaster in tunnelling. This study employs a three-dimensional (3D) material point method (MPM) to simulate the dynamic collapse process and post-failure mechanisms of the tunnel face. The specific focus is on the scenario where the auxiliary air pressure balanced shield with a partially filled chamber is shut down. To assess the suitability of the 3D MPM, numerical solutions are compared with the results from small-scale experimental tests. Subsequently, a series of large-scale numerical simulations is conducted to explore the dynamic collapse characteristics of the tunnel face induced by the shutdown of the EPB shield under various support air pressures and cutter head conditions. The temporal evolution of the accumulated soil masses in the soil chamber and ground responses under different support air pressures, cutter head types and opening ratios are discussed. In particular, the associated surface subsidence due to the tunnel face collapse is determined and compared with empirical solutions. Numerical results confirm the applicability of the 3D MPM for simulating the large-scale tunnel face collapse scenarios, spanning from small to large deformation analysis.

Keywords

Large deformation / Material point method / Partially filled chamber / Post-failure mechanism / Shield tunnel / Tunnel face collapse

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Shuying Wang: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Tingyu Liu: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Formal analysis, Data curation. Xiangcou Zheng: Supervision, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Junsheng Yang: Supervision. Feng Yang: Supervision.

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.

Acknowledgments

The financial support from National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52022112), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52308425), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2023TQ0382) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (Grant No. 2023ZZTS0675) are acknowledged and appreciated. Additional thanks to constructive advisement provided by the editors and reviewers.

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