Dynamic response of a shallow lined circular tunnel by incident P1 and SV waves in an unsaturated half-plane

Abstract

The dynamic response of a shallow lined circular tunnel in the unsaturated half-plane during earthquakes is investigated in this paper using the complex function method. The wave fields of the unsaturated medium with unknown coefficients are solved by Fredlund’s theory and Helmholtz’s decomposition based on the momentum and mass balance equations. General expressions for the displacements and total stresses of the solid skeleton, pore pressures, and seepage are derived using the complex function method and conformal mapping technique. The half-plane surface and the tunnel in the physical domain are mapped onto two bonded ring regions in the image plane using two conformal mapping functions. The boundary value problem yields a series of algebraic equations by the boundary conditions and the continuity conditions along the liner-medium interface. The unknown coefficients in the infinite series of algebraic equations can be solved numerically by truncating the series number. A parametric study is performed to investigate the dynamic responses of the medium and the liner by the incident P1 waves. Numerical results reveal that the embedded depth of the tunnel, the saturation degree of the medium, the liner-medium rigidity ratio, the frequency and angle of the incident P1 waves significantly affect the dynamic responses of the medium and the liner. The shielding effect on the tunnel to the incident P1 waves is obvious. The response of the liner-medium system to the incident waves is independent of the saturation degree of the unsaturated medium when its value is high. The effect of the liner-medium rigidity ratio is great on the dynamic stress concentrations of the liner-medium system and weak on the displacements along the half surface. The frequency of the incident excitation has a great influence on the displacements of the half surface.