Upper-Bound Finite-Element Analysis of Characteristics of Critical Settlement Induced by Tunneling in Undrained Clay
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 18, Issue 9
Abstract
An interesting operation has been developed to estimate the critical normalized surface settlement for shallow tunnels in undrained clay (idealized as a homogeneously Tresca material). The upper-bound finite-element method in combination with a plastic-dissipation-based mesh adaptive strategy is used to obtain upper-bound solutions and velocity fields. Based on the vertical velocity field, the corresponding critical surface settlement field is obtained by introducing an assumed constraint related to soil deformation. The results show that the critical normalized surface settlement pattern is similar to a plug with concentrated strain at the bottom, and the calculated settlement data are fitted well by superimposing two Gaussian curves. The widths of the main settlement trough and the plug increase with increasing dimensionless unit weight γD/c, and the plug-type settlement pattern is easily recognized with an increase of dimensionless depth H/D. For different combinations of H/D and γD/c, a new normalized equation is developed to evaluate the critical normalized surface settlement. The results agree reasonably well with the solutions reported in the literature.
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Acknowledgments
This work was sponsored by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant 2016YFC0802504), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant 2017M621608), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 51479050). The authors are grateful to these institutions for their support.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 18 • Issue 9 • September 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 29, 2017
Accepted: Feb 28, 2018
Published online: Jul 11, 2018
Published in print: Sep 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Dec 11, 2018
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