Three-dimensional structural analyses of the shield-driven “Green Heart” tunnel of the high-speed line South

Abstract

The tunnel lining generates a significant part of the bore tunnel project costs. This tunnel structure is one of the most important components of the whole tunneling process. The tunnel structure has to fulfill all necessary functional requirements during its lifetime. Because of this it is essential for engineers first to understand the realistic tunnel-lining behaviour and then to design a tunnel structure in a properway. The design of the lining structure is actually quite simple because of the wide range easy-to-use models now available. In contrast, predicting realistic tunnel-lining behavior is very difficult. The available numerical models for a segmented concrete lining cannot predict realistic structure behavior at all stages of excavation and during the tunnel lifetime. Conventional models ignore the influences of assembling processes, imperfections of segments, type of joints and variation in stress distributions in the concrete sections. This paper deals with three-dimensional finite element analyses of the tunnel structure, observations during the construction phase and in-situ measurements on the Second Heinenoord Tunnel (Bakker 1999) applied on the structural design of the shield-driven “Green Heart” Tunnel of the High Speed Line-South in the Netherlands.