Three-dimensional numerical investigation of multifaced tunneling in water-bearing soft ground

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation of the performance of multifaced tunneling under a pile-supported building in water-bearing soft ground. Special attention was paid to the effect of tunneling and groundwater interaction on the tunneling performance. A fully coupled three-dimensional (3D) stress – pore pressure finite element model was adopted to realistically capture the mechanical and hydrological interaction between the tunneling and groundwater. The results indicate that the groundwater drawdown during tunneling yields a considerably larger settlement-affected zone than for cases with no groundwater drawdown, with a tendency for large portions of ground settlement and groundwater drawdown to be completed before the tunnel passes a monitoring section. Also revealed is that the presence of a building tends to reduce the ground settlements and cause subsurface settlements more or less uniformly with depth. It is shown that the lining deformation, and thus its stresses are not significantly affected by the presence of the building for the multifaced tunneling considered in this study. Axial loads in the piles supporting the building tend to either increase or decrease depending on the pile location relative to the tunnel axis. The patterns of changes in pile axial loads are different from the results of previous studies concerning a single pile.