Ground disturbance caused by shield tunnelling in a stiff, overconsolidated clay

Abstract

Attewell, P.B. and Farmer, I.W., 1974. Ground disturbance caused by shield tunnelling in a stiff, overconsolidated clay. Eng. Geol., 8: 361–381. Some of the factors affecting ground deformation around shield tunnelling excavations in stiff clays are considered. There is particular reference throughout the paper to an analysis and interpretation of measured ground deformation around a 4.146-m diameter, hand-excavated, shield-driven tunnel at a nominal axis depth of 29.3 m in the overconsolidated London Clay. The maximum surface settlement was found, by precise levelling, to be 6.1 mm but the shape of the transverse surface settlement profile conformed to a normal probability curve only up to the time of shield passage. Of the contributory ground losses at the tunnel, yield of the clay at the tunnel face appears to dominate to the extent of generating up to 50% of the eventual surface settlement. Measurement evidence suggests a rate of yield at the face that is 2 to 3 times the radial yield over the shield and implies that up to about one-fifth of the surface settlement could be attributed to radial yield into the grouted sections of the erected tunnel lining.