Approximate analytical solution of tunneling‐induced responses of a soil–foundation system using contact mechanics

Abstract

AbstractEstimating the tunneling‐induced responses of a soil–foundation system is crucial for safety control in urban underground engineering. In existing analytical research, the soil–foundation interaction is considered based on the Winkler soil model, with minimal focus on the continuum soil model. Hence, in this study, based on the continuum soil model, an approximate analytical solution is derived to predict the tunneling‐induced responses of a soil–foundation system considering the contact effect, where an approximation by replacing the surface of the complex variable solution for an elastic half‐plane with a tunnel with the mathematical expression of Sagaseta's ground loss settlement formula is adopted. A new strategy is proposed to optimize the derivation process, where the normal contact pressure after tunnel excavation is directly determined using the contact mechanics, and the proposed solution is obtained using the superposition principle. Subsequently, the approximation is proven to be accurate when the ratio of the buried depth to the tunnel radius is greater than 2.00. The proposed solution meets the given conditions and is in good agreement with numerical results, which verify the correctness of analytical solution. Furthermore, a parametric study is performed to investigate the influences of the key parameters on the mechanical responses. The results indicate that the proposed solution can quantitatively describe the nonlinear contact characteristics in the soil–foundation system; the contact effect is found to contribute to the discontinuous displacement and stress concentration when subjected to the significant effects of tunnel excavation.