Design of Micropiles for Tunnel Face Reinforcement: Undrained Upper Bound Solution
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 1
Abstract
The stability of tunnel faces supported by an umbrella of subhorizontal micropiles is analyzed by means of the upper bound theorem of plasticity. The micropiles are considered beams subjected to the kinematic motion imposed by the assumed failure mechanism. The limiting resistance of the supporting beams is first addressed. The failure mechanism imposes a displacement pattern on the beam, which is similar to the response of vertical piles subjected to horizontal load. The mechanism of beam deformation was included into the overall instability mechanism for the tunnel face stability. Limiting conditions of the beam under undrained conditions are used. A general minimization process associated with the upper bound formulation is developed. Stability conditions are described in dimensionless parameters and plotted in ready-to-use design charts. In particular, a dimensionless micropile coefficient, which includes all the relevant design parameters of the umbrella, could be isolated and plotted in undrained soil strength and tunnel geometry. A real face failure is finally described, and the required supporting umbrella is designed on the basis of the developed procedure.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Anagnostou, G., and Kovàri, K. (1996). “Face stability conditions with earth-pressure-balanced shields.” Tunn. Undergr. Space Technol., 11(2), 165–173.
Augarde, C. E., Andrei, V. L., and Sloan, S. W. (2003). “Stability of an undrained plane strain heading revisted.” Comput. Geotech., 30, 419–430.
Bieniawski, Z. T. (1989). Engineering rock mass classifications, Wiley, New York.
Broms, B. B. (1964). “Lateral resistance of piles in cohesive soils.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 90(2), 27–63.
Broms, B. B., and Bennermark, H. (1967). “Stability of clay at vertical openings.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 93(1), 71–94.
Date, K., Mair, R. J., and Soga, K. (2008). “Reinforcing effects of forepoling and facebolts in tunnelling.” Proc., 6th Int. Symp. (IS-Shanghai 2008), CRC Press, Leiden, The Netherlands, 635–641.
Davis, E. H., Gunn, M. J., Mair, R. J., and Seneviratne, H. N. (1980). “The stability of shallow tunnels and underground openings in cohesive material.” Géotechnique, 30(4), 397–416.
Dias, D., Kastner, R., Subrin, D., Wong, H., and Dubois, R. (1998). “Behaviour of a tunnel face reinforced by bolts, comparison between analytical-numerical models.” The geotechnics of hard soil-soft rock, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 961–972.
Galli, G., Grimaldi, A., and Leonardi, A. (2004). “Three-dimensional modelling of tunnel excavation and lining.” Comput. Geotech., 31(3), 171–183.
Klar, A., Osman, A. S., and Bolton, M. (2007). “2D and 3D upper bound solutions for tunnel excavation using ‘elastic’ flow fields.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 31, 1367–1374.
Leca, E., and Dormieux, L. (1990). “Upper and lower bound solutions for the face stability of shallow circular tunnels in frictional material.” Géotechnique, 40(4), 581–606.
Leca, E., and Dormieux, L. (1992). “Contribution à l’étude de la stabilité du front de taille d’un tunnel en milieu cohérent.” Rev. Fr. Géotech., 61, 5–16 (in French).
Leca, E., et al. (1997). “Analyse théorique et expérimentale de la stabilité du front de taille des tunnels à faible profondeur.” Proc., 14th Int. Congress on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1421–1424.
Leca, E., Leblais, Y., and Kuhnhenn, K. (2000). “Underground works in soils and soft rock tunnelling.” Int. Conf. on Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Vol. 1, CRC Press, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 220–268.
Lyamin, A. V., and Sloan, S. W. (2002a). “Upper bound limit analysis using linear finite elements and nonlinear programming.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 26(2), 181–216.
Lyamin, A. V., and Sloan, S. W. (2002b). “Lower bound limit analysis using nonlinear programming.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 55(5), 573–611.
Melis, M. J., and Medina, L. E. (2005). “Discrete numerical model for analysis of earth pressure balance tunnel excavation.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(10), 1234–1242.
Ng, C. W. W., and Lee, G. T. K. (2002). “A three-dimensional parametric study of the use of soil nails for stabilising tunnel faces.” Comput. Geotech., 29(8), 673–697.
Peila, D., Oreste, P., Pelizza, S., and Poma, A. (1996). “Study of the influence of sub-horizontal fibre-grass pipes on the stability of a tunnel face.” North American Tunneling’96, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 425–432.
Sloan, S. W., and Assadi, A. (1991). “Undrained stability of a square tunnel in a soil whose strength increases linearly with depth.” Comput. Geotech., 12(4), 165–173.
Sloan, S. W., and Assadi, A. (1994). “Undrained stability of a plane strain heading.” Can. Geotech. J., 31(3), 443–450.
Vermeer, A., Ruse, N., and Marcher, T. (2002). “Tunnel heading stability in drained ground.” Felsbau, 20(6), 1–18.
Wong, H., Subrin, D., and Dias, D. (2000). “Extrusion movements of a tunnel head reinforced by finite length bolts-a closed form solution using homogenization approach.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 24(6), 533–565.
Yoo, C., and Shin, Y.-K. (2003). “Deformation behaviour of tunnel face reinforced with longitudinal pipes—laboratory and numerical investigation.” Tunn. Undergr. Space Technol., 18(4), 303–319.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 12, 2009
Accepted: Apr 28, 2011
Published online: Apr 30, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.