Determination of local stiffness for the joint of tunnel lining in the simulation

Abstract

In the numerical simulation of shield tunnel, the treatment of joints will greatly affect the accuracy of numerical analysis. Because the stiffness of the joint is lower than the stiffness of segments, the local weakening method is adopted in this paper , which can simulate the stiffness heterogeneity in the transverse and longitudinal directions of the tunnel lining. In the method, lower local stiffness is used for the joint which is the connection between segments and rings of lining, while the stiffness of segments keeps to be unchanged. The local stiffness of the joint, which is represented by the elastic modulus of the joint in the simulation, is the key point. To verify the validity of the method, multiple full-scale experiment [11-14] objects are analyzed and the simulation results are compared to the experiment data. Then the empirical formula of elastic modulus of the weakening joint is proposed by analyzing the three-ring lining in a full-scale experiment under different assemblages. Further, the empirical formula of elastic modulus for the joint is expanded to the large-diameter tunnel and super-large-diameter tunnel. It provides a good reference for the determination of elastic modulus of the joint in the simulation of shield tunnel.