Experimental and numerical study on the soil arching effect caused by deep-buried shield tunneling

Abstract

The soil arching effect induced by deep-buried shield tunneling strongly influenced the ground stress and displacement. Therefore, revealing the evolution mechanism of the soil arching effect is a prerequisite for accurately predicting the tunnel load, which has not been understood in deep-buried conditions. Three model tests and eight numerical simulations were carried out to enhance the understanding of the soil arching evolution, in which the stress field, displacement field, and strain field were analysed. The experimental and numerical results indicated that the ground reaction curve presented a two-stage development process of an initially linear decrease followed by a gradual decrease. Compared with the theoretical tunnel loads, the measured and numerical values are relatively larger due to the loosening earth pressure theory ignoring the evolution process of the soil arching effect. The soil arching height decreases with the increase in stress level, measuring 1.75D (the initial diameter of the model tunnel), 1.65D, and 1.61D, respectively, which results from the lagging evolution of the soil arching effect under high-stress conditions. The formation of the shear band was affected by the stress-dependent dilatancy of the soil. At low stress levels, the shear band develops vertically upward. In contrast, at higher stress levels, the shear bands tilt towards the lateral side.

Keywords

Soil arching effect / Ground reaction curve / Model test / Numerical simulation / Deep-buried shield tunnel

Data availability

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

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xu Song: Investigation, Formal analysis, Validation, Writing - original draft. Chang-Wei Miao: Data curation, Resources. Ren-Peng Chen: Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing, Conceptualization. Xiao-Ning Deng: Supervision. Yu Zhang: Methodology. Jun-Qing Wang: Visualization. Xiao-Fei Chen: Project administration.

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

The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52090082 and 51938005).

References

[1] Adachi T., Kimura M., & Kishida K. (2003). Experimental study on the distribution of earth pressure and surface settlement through threedimensional trapdoor tests. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 18(2/3), 171-183.

[2] Altaee A., & Fellenius B. H. (1994). Physical modeling in sand. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 31(3), 420-431.

[3] Bolton M. D. (1986). The strength and dilatancy of sands. Géotechnique, 36(1), 65-78.

[4] Burke T. S. D., & Elshafie M. Z. E. B. (2021a). Arching in granular soils: Experimental observations of deformation mechanisms. Géotechnique, 71(10), 866-878.

[5] Burke T. S. D., & Elshafie M. Z. E. B. (2021b). Arching in granular soils: Limit state equilibrium. Géotechnique, 71(8), 700-713.

[6] Chen C. N., Huang W. Y., & Tseng C. T. (2011). Stress redistribution and ground arch development during tunneling. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 26(1), 228-235.

[7] Chen F., Liu X. H., Sun J. F., Xiong H., Yin Z. Y., & Chen X. S. (2025a). Micro mechanism and analytical model of stress distribution in loosened soil zone above active trapdoor. Computers and Geotechnics, 177, 106841.

[8] Chen F. Q., Luo S. C., & Lai F. W. (2022). New analytical solutions for cohesive-frictional soils above deep active trapdoors. International Journal of Geomechanics, 22(12), 04022235.

[9] Chen H. Q., Xiong H., Qiu Y. Y., Yin Z. Y., & Chen X. S. (2024). Catastrophic failure mechanism of underground complexes under deep construction disturbance. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 154, 106059.

[10] Chen R. P., Song X., Meng F. Y., Wang H. L., Liu Y., & Wen L. (2025b). Experimental investigation on the soil arching effect induced by deep-buried shield tunneling. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 155, 106161.

[11] Chevalier B., Combe G., & Villard P. (2012). Experimental and discrete element modeling studies of the trapdoor problem: Influence of the macro-mechanical frictional parameters. Acta Geotechnica, 7(1), 15-39.

[12] Cinicioglu O., & Abadkon A. (2015). Dilatancy and friction angles based on in situ soil conditions. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 141(4), 06014019.

[13] Evans C. H. (1983). An examination of arching in granular soils. [Master dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge].

[14] Franza A., Marshall A. M., & Zhou B. (2019). Greenfield tunnelling in sands: The effects of soil density and relative depth. Géotechnique, 69(4), 297-307.

[15] Gu X. Q., Wu R. T., Liang F. Y., & Gao G. Y. (2021). On HSS model parameters for Shanghai soils with engineering verification. Rock and Soil Mechanics, 42(3), 833-845 (in Chinese).

[16] Jacobsz S. W. (2016). Trapdoor experiments studying cavity propagation. In Proceedings of 1 st southern african geotechnical conference (pp.159-165). South Africa: Sun City.

[17] Jiang M. J., & Yin Z. Y. (2012). Analysis of stress redistribution in soil and earth pressure on tunnel lining using the discrete element method. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 32, 251-259.

[18] Jiang X. L., Li L., Yuan J., & Yin J. S. (2011). Dynamic analysis of strata horizontal displacements induced by shield construction of deep tunnel. Rock and Soil Mechanics, 32(04), 1186-1192 (in Chinese).

[19] Khalid M. S., Kikumoto M., Cui Y., & Kishida K. (2019). The role of dilatancy in shallow overburden tunneling. Underground Space, 4(3), 181-200.

[20] Khatami H., Deng A., & Jaksa M. (2019). An experimental study of the active arching effect in soil using the digital image correlation technique. Computers and Geotechnics, 108, 183-196.

[21] Khatami H., Deng A., & Jaksa M. (2020). Passive arching in rubberized sand backfills. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 57(4), 549-567.

[22] Khatami H., Deng A., & Jaksa M. (2021a). Discrete element modelling of the trapdoor arching effect in sand and rubberised sand. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Geotechnical Engineering, 174(6), 657-669.

[23] Khatami H., Deng A., & Jaksa M. (2021b). Mapping soil archinginduced shear and volumetric strains in dense sands. Transportation Geotechnics, 28, 100547.

[24] Lee C. J., Wu B. R., Chen H. T., & Chiang K. H. (2006). Tunnel stability and arching effects during tunneling in soft clayey soil. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 21(2), 119-132.

[25] Li R., Zhang D. L., Song Y., Li A., & Luo J. W. (2023). Pressure arch effect of deeply buried symmetrically distributed triple tunnels. Symmetry, 15(3), 673.

[26] Liang L. J., Xu C. J., Chen Q. Z., & Chen Q. S. (2020). Experimental and theoretical investigations on evolution of soil-arching effect in 2D trapdoor problem. International Journal of Geomechanics, 20(6), 06020007.

[27] Lin X. T., Chen R. P., Wu H. N., Meng F. Y., Su D., & Han K. (2021). Calculation of earth pressure distribution on the deep circular tunnel considering stress-transfer mechanisms in different zones. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 119, 104211.

[28] Liu C., Zhang Z. X., & Regueiro R. A. (2014). Pile and pile group response to tunnelling using a large diameter slurry shield - Case study in Shanghai. Computers and Geotechnics, 59, 21-43.

[29] Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China. (2019). GB/T 50123-2019: Standard for geotechnical testing method, Beijing. (in Chinese).

[30] Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China. (2021). GB/T 51438-2021: Chinese standard for design of shield tunnel engineering, Beijing. (in Chinese).

[31] Rui R., Tol F. V., Xia Y. Y., Eekelen S. V., & Hu G. (2018). Evolution of soil arching: 2D analytical models. International Journal of Geomechanics, 18(6), 04018056.

[32] Schanz T., & Vermeer P. A. (1996). Angles of friction and dilatancy of sand. Géotechnique, 46(1), 145-151.

[33] Song X., Meng F. Y., Chen R. P., Wang H. L., & Wu H. N. (2023a). Effect of seepage on soil arching effect in deep shield tunnel. Underground Space, 12, 218-233.

[34] Song X., Wu H. N., Meng F. Y., Chen R. P., & Cheng H. Z. (2023b). Soil arching evolution caused by shield tunneling in deep saturated ground. Transportation Geotechnics, 40, 100966.

[35] Terzaghi K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

[36] Tiwari B., Ye G. L., Li M. G., Khalid U., & Yadav S. K. (2020). Strength and dilatancy behaviors of deep sands in Shanghai with a focus on grain size and shape effect. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 12(6), 1214-1225.

[37] Wong R. (1986). Design and performance evaluation of tunnels and shafts. [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Alberta, Edmonton].

[38] Wu C. S., & Zhu Z. D. (2018). Comparative study on ground loss ratio due to shield tunnel with different diameters. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 40(12), 2257-2265 (in Chinese).

[39] Wu J., Liao S. M., & Liu M. B. (2019). An analytical solution for the arching effect induced by ground loss of tunneling in sand. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 83, 175-186.

[40] Xiong H., Qiu Y. Y., Lin X. T., Chen X. S., & Huang D. W. (2023). Multiple arching in cohesion-friction soils: Insights from deformation behavior and failure mechanisms using FEM-SPH approach. Computers and Geotechnics, 154, 105146.

[41] Xiong H., Qiu Y. Y., Shi X. S., Wang X., & Chen X. S. (2024). Arching development above active trapdoor: Insight from multi-scale analysis using FEM-SPH. Acta Geotechnica, 19(5), 2419-2443.

[42] Zhang H. F., Zhang P., Zhou W., Dong S., & Ma B. S. (2016). A new model to predict soil pressure acting on deep burial jacked pipes. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 60, 183-196.