Numerical Simulation of Temperature Effects on Mechanical Behavior of the Railway Tunnel in Tibet

Abstract

Under the influence of plate collision, the high geothermal is a widespread phenomenon within the region of Tibet. Due to the aforementioned high geothermal, lining cracking is a common disaster in Sangzhuling tunnel during construction period. This paper presented the mechanical behaviour of tunnel lining under high geothermal temperature, which is studied by thermo-mechanical numerical method. The results both from field investigation and numerical analysis demonstrate that high geothermal temperature can cause the tunnel lining cracking and the variation of the stress of the tunnel lining. Thus, a novelty sandwich composite lining supporting scheme is proposed to overcome such geothermal temperature effects, in which a thermal insulation layer between primary supporting and secondary supporting is designed. The numerical analysis results indicate that the insulation layer can significantly improve the mechanical characteristics of the lining structure. In addition, the effect of the insulation layer is not linear with its thickness. For this reason, the optimum insulation thickness of the insulation layer is chosen as 0.06 m, which was optimized by a numerical parametric analysis. The research can provide a reliable reference for tunnelling works in high geothermal regions.