An analytical solution to investigate the dynamic impact of a moving surface load on a shallowly-buried tunnel

Abstract

In order to investigate the dynamic impact of a moving surface load on a shallow-buried tunnel, an analytical model of a tunnel embedded in an elastic half-space was proposed. The half-space and the tunnel structure were modeled as visco-elastic media and the moving surface load was simplified as a moving point load on the ground surface. Based on the fundamental solution for the isotropic elastic half-space system in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates, the dynamic response of a shallowly-buried tunnel in a half-space generated by a moving surface load was obtained. The transformations between plane wave and cylindrical wave functions were used to facilitate the application of boundary conditions at the ground surface and the tunnel interface. It was found that the vibration of the shallowly-buried tunnel increases significantly as the load moving speed increases, and reaches a maximum value at a critical load velocity. The tunnel vibration can be greatly reduced as the buried depth increases, and can satisfy the requirement of vibration specification (ISO 04866-2010) after it exceeds the critical depth. The critical depth increases exponentially with the increase of the moving speed of the surface load.