A strategic review on enhanced DEM simulation and advanced 3-D particle printing techniques to improve pipe-jacking force prediction

Abstract

Urbanization has increased the demand of tunnels for various infrastructure. Micro-tunnelling with pipe-jacking method has been widely adopted for the construction of underground pipe networks due to its numerous advantages compared to conventional trenching. This review paper has addressed the major factors influencing jacking forces during pipe-jacking works. To illustrate this further, five popular jacking force models were used to assess the jacking forces for drives in soils and rocks. Although the jacking force models have limited considerations for drives in rock, the principles from a novel approach adopted by Choo and Ong (2015) using reconstituted tunnelling spoils for direct shear test was used. Particle shape and its mineral contents have been shown to influence the shear strength properties (Peerun et al. 2020). Thus, it is then postulated that arching effect would significantly reduce the overburden pressure and hence the overall jacking forces. Besides, the effectiveness of lubrication has shown to be geology dependent (Choo and Ong, 2015; Peerun et al. 2020). For unlubricated drives, the influence of pipe surface roughness was found to greatly affect the jacking forces. Pipes with increasing surface roughness have shown an increase in soil-pipe interaction until a critical state limit is reached and beyond which, the effect on the shear strength of soil or rock would be negligible (Iscimen, 2004). Recent advances in the assessment of jacking forces using advanced discrete element modeling (DEM) and 3D printing techniques have also been critically reviewed with the aim of potentially using the combination of these techniques to improve the fundamental understanding of pipe-soil interaction affecting the development of arching phenomenon in order to improve the prediction of jacking forces.