Full-scale loading test for shield tunnel segments: Load-bearing performance and failure patterns of lining structures

Abstract

To explore the load-bearing performance and the failure patterns of the lining structures, a full-scale loading test on the three-ring staggered assembled shield tunnel segments is carried out through a hydraulic loading system. In the experimental study, the segments’ internal force, convergence deformation, and displacement, and the bolts’ internal force, are analyzed. According to the experimental results, the relationship between internal force and deformation is obtained to determine the residual bearing capacity of the shield tunnel at each stage. Three stages are specified for the evolution of the segment’s maximum bending moment during the loading process, in which, the elastic stage is the main and longest stage, in which the bending moment of the segment increases the most. There are two stages for convergence deformation development and segment misalignment development. At the end of loading, the segment’s maximum positive and negative convergence values reach 61.22 and −57.69 mm, respectively. Besides, the maximum segment misalignment is 3.67 mm, which occurs in the direction of 90°. The segment cracks when its maximum convergence value reaches 25.03 mm. Moreover, there are signs of fracturing on the waist joint of the segment when its maximum convergence value reaches 32.73 mm. The concrete at the waist joint starts fracturing in pieces when the segment’s maximum convergence value reaches 38.93 mm, which is defined as the type of shear failure. Finally, the bearing capacity of shield tunnels during segment failure period can be evaluated by using the corresponding relationship between deformation and internal force.

Keywords

Shield tunnels / Full-scale test / Bearing capacity / Convergence control value

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Gang Wei: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization. Feifan Feng: Writing - original draft. Shiyu Huang: Data curation, Writing - original draft. Tianbao Xu: Writing - review & editing. Jiaxuan Zhu: Data curation, Formal analysis. Xiao Wang: Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization. Chengwei Zhu: Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization. This needs to be supplemented in the article.

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.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the General Scientific Research Projects for Agriculture and Social Development in Hangzhou, China (Grant No. 20201203B127); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51778576); the Basic Public Welfare Research Projects in Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. LGF22E080012). In addition, we also thank Technology Innovation and Training Center at the Polytechnic Institute of Zhejiang University, and Yantai Xintiandi Test Technology Co. Ltd., China, for their support in this experiment.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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