Excavation of Komořany Tunnel in Sand: A Case Study
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23, Issue 8
Abstract
This paper presents a study of the accuracy of two-dimensional (2D) finite-element predictions of a displacement field of retaining structures supporting the excavation next to the Komořany tunnel in Prague, Czech Republic. The ground material is a Komořany sand, which is a sand with some gravel and almost no fines. Two different constitutive models were used to represent the mechanical behavior of Komořany sand, namely the standard Mohr–Coulomb model and a hypoplastic model for sands with intergranular strain. High-quality laboratory investigation was performed and used for calibrating the model parameters. In addition, good-quality displacement field measurements were used as a benchmark for the models’ predictions. The simulation results suggest that the hypoplastic model predicts both the laboratory and field measurement results with more accuracy. A discussion about the importance of the correct selection of the constitutive model on the prediction of boundary value problems is also presented.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to M. Tichovská, who performed the original simulations of the presented case study as a part of her thesis. The authors appreciate the financial support given by the Czech Science Foundation (Grant No. 21-35764J). The first author acknowledges the institutional support by the Center for Geosphere Dynamics (UNCE/SCI/006). The authors thank L. Mařík from SAGASTA s.r.o. for providing the photograph of the excavation.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- Dr
- relative density;
- ec0
- parameter controlling position of critical state line in p–e plane of hypoplastic model;
- ed0
- parameter controlling minimum void ratio line in p–e plane of hypoplastic model;
- ei0
- parameter controlling position of isotropic compression line in p–e plane of hypoplastic model;
- G
- shear modulus;
- Gs
- specific gravity;
- hs
- parameter controlling shape of limiting void ratio curves of hypoplastic model;
- K0
- at-rest earth pressure coefficient;
- mR
- parameter controlling initial shear modulus on 180° strain path reversal and in initial loading of hypoplastic model;
- mT
- parameter controlling initial shear modulus on 90° strain path reversal of hypoplastic model;
- n
- parameter controlling shape of limiting void ratio curves of hypoplastic model;
- p
- mean effective stress;
- q
- deviatoric stress;
- R
- size of elastic strain range;
- re
- relative void ratio;
- α
- parameter controlling dependency of peak friction angle on relative void ratio of hypoplastic model;
- β
- parameter controlling bulk and shear stiffness of hypoplastic model;
- βR
- rate of evolution of intergranular strain tensor;
- γ
- shear strain;
- φc
- critical state friction angle;
- φmob
- mobilized friction angle; and
- χ
- parameter controlling interpolation between reversible elastic response and nonlinear hypoplastic response.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23 • Issue 8 • August 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 7, 2022
Accepted: Feb 18, 2023
Published online: May 18, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 18, 2023
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