Abstract
Knowledge from historical earthquake events indicates that a submarine tunnel crossing active strike-slip faults is prone to be damaged in an earthquake. Previous studies have demonstrated that the flexible joints are an effective measure for a submarine tunnel crossing a strike-slip fault. The background project of this paper is the second submarine tunnel of Jiaozhou bay. In this work, model tests and numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the deformation and failure mechanism of a submarine tunnel with flexible joints under a strike-slip fault dislocation. The influence of strike-slip faults on a tunnel with flexible joints has been investigated by examining the deformation of rock mass surface, analyzing lining stains, and crack propagation from model tests. Numerical simulations are conducted to study the effects of the design parameters of a tunnel with flexible joints on the mechanical response of the lining. The results showed that the ‘articulated design’ measure can improve the ability of the tunnel to resist the strike-slip faults. In terms of the mechanism of design parameters of a tunnel with flexible joints, this paper finds that increasing the lining thickness, decreasing the lining segment length, and decreasing the tunnel diameter to a reasonable extent could effectively improve the performance of this faulting resistance measure for a tunnel under the strike-slip fault zone dislocation. Compared with the horseshoe tunnel cross-section, the circular tunnel cross-section can improve the ability of the faulting resistance of a tunnel with flexible joints, while the optimal angle of the tunnel crossing the fault zone is 90º. It is concluded that the wider fault zone, smaller flexible joint width, and less stiffness of the flexible joint could make lining safer under a strike-slip fault dislocation. The above research results can serve as a necessary theoretical reference and technical support for the design of reinforcement measures for a submarine tunnel with flexible joints under strike-slip fault dislocation.
Highlights
To study the deformation and damage mechanisms of a submarine tunnel with flexible joints under the strike-slip fault dislocation, several comparisons of experimental results between lining with joints and lining without joints are obtained from the observations of deformation of rock mass surface, analyzing tunnel stain and crack propagation in this study
For a tunnel without flexible joints, the tunnel structure is seriously damaged when subjected to strike-slip fault dislocation
The deformation and failure mechanism of a submarine tunnel are investigated with model tests and numerical simulations due to the strike-slip fault dislocation
Summary
Many scholars have studied the issue of tunnels crossing active strike-slip faults with numerical simulations and model tests [11,12,13,14,15,16]. Yan et al [32] investigated the response and damage pattern of a tunnel with flexible joints under the normal fault dislocation by numerical simulations and model tests. In the physical model test, insufficient effort has been put into the study of the damage mechanism of a submarine tunnel with flexible joints under strike-slip fault dislocation. Model tests and numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the deformation and failure mechanism of a submarine tunnel with flexible joints under the strike-slip fault dislocation. Numerical simulations are conducted to study the effects of the design parameters of a tunnel with flexible joints on the mechanical response of linings, such as fault width, flexible joint width, and flexible joint stiffness
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