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Eshagh Namazi
Researcher, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Formerly a Tunnel Engineer at Bamrah Construction); email: eshagh.namazi@gmail.com
Hisham Mohamad
Lecturer, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia ; email: mhisham@utm.my
Mohsen Hajihassani
Researcher, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; email:
mohsen_hajihassani@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Excavation of tunnels underneath cities often intrudes the existence of piled foundation and in severe cases, can cause damage to the overlying structures. As there are very limited published case studies concerning understanding of the interaction between piled structure and tunneling, there is a significant uncertainty regarding tunnel-pile interaction. In this paper, a case study of the effects of two subway tunnels on the contiguous pile walls which support a road underpass is investigated using three-dimensional Finite Element simulations. The interaction between the tunnels and piles is investigated with a special attention to the effect of tunnel face pressures. Through the numerical modelling and field data, it is shown with presence of the piles, the minimum pressure to support the tunnel face is less than minimum face pressure in the green field condition. Field experience indicates that excessive tunnel face pressure can cause temporary heave to the ground surface but also cause damage to the cutter head of tunnel boring machine.
KEYWORDS:
Pressure
INTRODUCTION
Construction of subway tunnels in the urban environment is a complex problem particularly when tunnels are excavated very close to existing structures supported with pile foundation system. The design and execution of these tunnels requires assessment of the impact of the tunnel-induced ground movement on the stability and integrity of existing piled foundations (Mohamed and Mattar, 2009; Cheng et al. 2007; Mroueh and Shahrour, 2002; Jacobsz et al. 2001; Leung et al. 2000; Chen et al.
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1999; Vermeer and Bonnier, 1991). Several researchers have focused on the influence zone for 2D pile-soil-tunneling interaction based on case studies and numerical simulations (Lee and Bassett, 2007; Selemetas et al., 2006; and Kaalberg et al. 2006; Lee et al. 2007; Coutts and Wang, 2000). In these studies the effects of different parameters (e.g. distance of the pile from tunnel centre, position of the pile tip regarding to the horizontal tunnel axis, pile and tunnel diameter) on the interaction between pile and tunnel have been investigated to develop understanding of the interaction mechanism between tunnels and piles.
In the first part of this paper, a case study of the effects of tunneling on the contiguous piles is presented. The 3D-finite element (PLAXIS 3D TUNNEL Package) was performed to investigate the effect of tunnel advancement on the contiguous pile with special attention to the most important parameter of excavation called face pressure. In the second part, parametric study of the effect of tunnel face pressure on the interaction between tunnel and piles is carried out. The last part represents the longitudinal settlement measured at the ground surface where the high face pressure was used in the tunneling operation.
SITE DESCRIPTIONS
The growth and expansion of Shiraz, a southern city of Iran, and increase in the number of vehicles and population led to construction of subway in order to overcome the transportation problems. The South eastern part of Line of that subway with length of approximately 14 km consisted of a twin tunnel. The running tunnels were excavated by Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) of 6.88 m external diameter with tail-skin grouting. The tunnel linings were made from pre-fabricated reinforced concrete segments forming an internal tunnel diameter of 6 m. A particular interest of Line project between stations Zirgozar and Zand Cross was the constructions of tunnels below an existing Zand Underground Motorway (Zand Underpass). Figure 1 shows the longitudinal section of Shiraz tunnel between the stations, under the Zand Underpass. The distance between the stations is 1215 m whereas the underpass length is about 607 m. Next to the Zand Underpass, cars must pass downward and upward ramps of 6.5% with lengths of 135 m. The twin tunnel underneath, on the other hand, were excavated with a generally more gentle slope of 1.9% running from the stations to their deepest point of approximately 16 m along the Underpass. The spacing of the two tunnel centre-lines next to the Underpass is equivalent to two tunnel diameters.
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the piles comprised of cement and bentonite mixture. Figure 2 shows the geometry of the structure and the position of the pile walls regarding to the tunnels. The mechanical properties of the Underpass partitions are given in table 1.
Made ground 5.2 m 8m Clayey sand 13.6 m 3.6 m 1.2 m Inorganic Silt 6.7 m 3.2 m
4m
7m
3m 1.8 m
R=3.44 m
Clayey sand
GROUND CONDITION
The site investigation includes three boreholes close to the area (Bamrah Construction, 2004). The sequence of strata identified from these boreholes is summarized in Figure 3. The ground profile consisted of made ground at the top, and the next clayey sand overlying the intermittent layers of clayey sand and inorganic silt. The tunnels were excavated in the clay and inorganic silt. Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the soil used for the analyses. The water table was taken as approximately 8m below the ground surface, i.e. within the inorganic silt.
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NUMERICAL MODELING
In order to investigate the tunnel advancement on the contiguous piles, 3D-Numerical modelling was performed using a commercial Finite Element program, i.e. PLAXIS 3D Tunnel (Brinkgreve and Broere, 2004). This software provides the flexible features to model the details of tunnel construction in soils. The finite element mesh used in numerical modelling is presented in Figure 3. The model is 100 m wide, 30 m deep and 70 m long. The geometrical boundaries considered here was found to be far enough from the tunnels axis in order to minimise the influence of boundaries on the tunnelling model. The model includes 4130 elements and 12389 nodes. The soils were modelled using 15-noded wedge elements, whereas 8-node plate elements represented the tunnel lining (Figure 3). To simulate the soilstructure interaction, a 16-node interface element was used.
The water table is assumed to produce the hydrostatic initial pore water pressure. An elastic-plastic soil model using the Mohr-coulomb failure criterion is adapted in this study. Because the soils are prevalently fine-grained and relatively low permeable, the analyses were carried out in undrained condition. In general, the process of tunnel construction under the Underpass was modelled in two steps (for more information for simulation of tunnelling, see Potts and Zdravkovic, 2001). First, the initial conditions were set up for the model before excavation of the tunnels. It was achieved by specifying the distribution of effective vertical and horizontal stress (using coefficient of earth pressure at rest, K0=0.5) and pore water pressure. The initial conditions were completed with simulating the underpass structure. In this stage, the vehicles loads were calculated and applied to the model. After establishing the initial conditions, the analyses continued with modeling excavation of the first tunnel. The tunnel excavation process was done through a step-by-step method in 16 phases. In each phase, the excavation process consists of: (i) excavation of the soil, (ii) application of pore water pressure, (iii) support pressure at the tunnel face to prevent active failure at the face, (iv) installation of the tunnel lining and finally (v) the grouting of the gap between the soil and the newly installed lining. The second tunnel excavation was modeled after the completion of the first tunnel in which the same manner of step-by-step method is applied.
Figure 3: Three dimensional finite element model of the tunnels under the Underpass
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et al., 2009). Such phenomenon, as discussed in the previous section, is called the shielding effect.
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Figure 7: 7 Face pres ssure related d to face dis splacement at Greenfie eld and actual ( (with existen nce of Zand d Underpass s)
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Figure 8: 8 Surface se ettlement tro ough for dif fferent valu ue of tunnel face pressu ure
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indicated by the field observation (Bamrah Construction, 2010). Replacement of the cutter head had to be made which lead to further delays and interruption to the tunnelling operation.
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TBM position:+10.5m
CONCLUSION
A 3D numerical analysis with assistance of field data has been presented to study the effects of face pressure on the surface settlement induced by tunnelling under the piled walls. Numerical modelling results showed the minimum pressure to support the tunnel face is less than minimum face pressure in the green field condition. In fact, applying the green-field pressure to the tunnel face in the presence of piles is a conservative method. The parametric study illustrated that increasing the face pressure significantly does not help to reduce the final surface settlement significantly but only slight. Field observation of the Shiraz subway tunnels under the existing Zand underpass showed excessive tunnel face pressure causes temporary heave to the ground surface but also cause damage to the TBM cutter head.
REFERENCES
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Coutts, D.R. and Wang, J. (20000. Monitoring of reinforced concrete piles under horizontal and vertical loads due to tunnelling. In: Tunnels and underground structures by Zhao, Shirlaw and Krishna, Singapore, 541-546. Chen, L. T., Poulos, H. G. and Loganathan, N. (1999). Pile responses caused by tunnelling. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 125 (3), 207-215.
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