Population concentration in urban areas has led traffic management a central issue. To mitigate traffic congestions, the government has planned to construct large-cross-section tunnels deep underground. This study focuses on estimating the damage caused to frame structures owing to tunnel excavation. When constructing a tunnel network deep underground, it is necessary to divide the main tunnel and connect the divergence tunnel to the ground surface. Ground settlement is caused by excavation of the adjacent divergence tunnel. Therefore, predicting ground settlement using diverse variables is necessary before performing damage estimation. We used the volume loss and cover-tunnel diameter ratio as the variables in this study. Applying the ground settlement values to the settlement induction device, we measured the extent of damage to frame structures due to displacement at specific points. The vertical and horizontal displacements that occur at these points were measured using preattached LVDT (Linear variable differential transformer), and the lateral strain and angular distortion were calculated using these displacements. The lateral strain and angular distortion are key parameters for structural damage estimation. A damage assessment chart comprises the "Negligible", "Very Slight Damage", "Slight Damage", "Moderate to Severe Damage", and "Severe to Very Severe Damage" categories was developed. This table was applied to steel frame and concrete frame structures for comparison.

The inflow rate is of interest in the design of underground structures such as tunnels and buried pipes below the groundwater table. Soil permeability governing the inflow rate significantly affects the hydro-geological behavior of soils but is difficult to estimate due to its wide range of distribution, nonlinearity and anisotropy. Volume changes induced by stress can cause nonlinear stress-strain behavior, resulting in corresponding permeability changes. In this paper, the nonlinearity and anisotropy of permeability are investigated by conducting Rowe cell tests, and a nonlinear permeability model considering anisotropy was proposed. Model modification and parameter evaluation for field application were also addressed. Significance of nonlinear permeability was illustrated by carrying out numerical analysis of a tunnel. It is highlighted that the effect of nonlinear permeability is significant in soils of which volume change is considerable, and particularly appears in the short-term flow behavior.

In most cases in urban areas, construction of divergence tunnel should take into account proximity to existing tunnel in operation. This inevitably leads to deformation of adjacent structures and surrounding ground. Preceding researches mainly dealt with reinforcing of the diverging section for the stability including the pillar. This has limitations in investigating the interactive effects between existing structures and surrounding ground due to the excavation of the divergence tunnel. In this study, the complex interactive behavior of pile, the operating tunnel, and the surrounding ground according to horizontal offsets between the two adjacent tunnels was quantitatively analyzed based on conditions diverged from operating tunnel in urban areas. The effects on ground structures confirmed by analyzing the ground surface settlements, pile settlements, and the axial forces of the pile. The axial forces of lining in operating tunnel investigated to estimate their impact on existing tunnel. In addition, in order to identify the deformation of the surrounding ground, the close range photogrammetry applied to the laboratory model test for confirming the underground displacements. Two-dimensional finite element numerical analysis was also performed and compared with the results. It identified that the impact of excavating a divergence tunnel decreased as the horizontal offset increased. In particular, when the horizontal offset was larger than 1.0D (D is the diameter of operating tunnel), the impact on existing structures further reduced and the deformation of surrounding ground was concentrated at the top of the divergence tunnel.

Due to the various restrictions and problems related to the construction of new roads in urban areas, underground road construction has been receiving a great deal of attention in the field of tunnel engineering. In this study, a double-deck road tunnel with a diverging section was analyzed for the evaluation of its stability. Both numerical analysis and scale model tests were performed, the results were used to develop a stability evaluation method for double-deck tunnels with diverging sections constructed in rocks by NATM. From regression analyses conducted on the results of the numerical analysis, an equation and a chart were derived, these tools allow us to obtain the strength/stress ratio (SSR) for double-deck road tunnels with a diverging tunnel in various diverging conditions quickly and accurately. These tools have great potential to help engineers evaluate the stability of double-deck tunnels in the preliminary design stage.

Submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a type of tunnel which causes the tunnel segments to float in the water. When the SFTs are connected to the ground, the connection between the SFT and the subsea bored tunnel is fragile due to the difference in behavioral characteristics between the two types of tunnels. Therefore, special design and construction methods are needed to ensure the stability of the area around the connection. However, since previous research on the stability of the connection site has not been undertaken enough, the basic step necessitates the evaluation of ground behavior at the shore connection. In this study, the numerical analysis targeting the shore connection between the subsea bored tunnel and the SFT was simulated. The strain concentration at the shore connection was analyzed by numerical simulation and the effects of several factors were examined. The results showed the instability in the ground close to the shore connection due to the imbalance in the behavior of the two types of tunnels; the location of the strain concentration varies with different environmental and structural conditions. It is expected that the results from this study can be utilized in future studies to determine weak points in the shore connection between the submerged floating tunnel and the subsea bored tunnel, and devise methods to mitigate the risks.

Korean society experienced successive earthquakes exceeding 5.0 magnitude in the past three years resulting in an increasing concern about earthquake stability of urban infrastructures. This study focuses on the significant aspects of earthquake risk assessment for the cut-and-cover underground railway station based on two-dimensional dynamic numerical analysis. Presented are features from a case study performed for the railway station in Seoul, South Korea. The PLAXIS2D was employed for numerical simulation and input of the earthquake ground motion was chosen from Pohang earthquake records (M5.4). The paper shows key aspects of earthquake risk for soil-structure system varying important parameters including embedded depth, supported ground information, and applied seismicity level, and then draws several meaningful conclusions from the analysis results such as seismic risk assessment.

Tunnel excavation in shallow soft ground conditions of urban areas experiences inevitable surface settlements that threaten the stability of nearby infrastructures. Surface settlements during shield TBM tunneling are related to a number of factors including geotechnical conditions, tunnel geometry and excavation methods. In this paper, a database collected from a construction section of Hong Kong subway was used to analyze the correlation of settlement-inducing factors and surface settlements monitored at different locations of a transverse trough. The Pearson correlation analysis result revealed a correlation between the factors in consideration. Factors such as the face pressure, advance speed, thrust force, cutter torque, twin tunnel distance and ground water level presented a modest correlation with the surface settlement, while no significant trends between the other factors and the surface settlements were observed. It can be concluded that an integrated effect of the settlement-inducing factors should be related to the magnitude of surface settlements.

The groundwater during tunnel excavation not only affects the stability of the tunnel and constructability but also causes the subsidence of the upper ground due to the lowering of groundwater. Generally, the cutoff grouting is applied as a countermeasure to reduce the groundwater inflow during tunnel excavation, and the cutoff grouting is often applied in the range of plastic zone around the tunnel. However, grouting in the plastic zone is only appropriate for ground reinforcement purposes, and guidelines for the application range of cutoff grouting and the targeted permeability coefficient of the grouting zone are required. In this study, the relationship between groundwater inflow into tunnel and application range of cutoff grouting and permeability coefficient is proposed and compared with numerical analysis results. It was found that grouting with tunnel radius thickness is appropriate to reduce the groundwater inflows effectively. More than 90% reduction in groundwater inflow can be achieved when the annular area of the tunnel radius thickness is grouted with a permeability reduction ratio of 1/50~1/200.

Mountainous areas cover more than 70% of Korea. With the rapid increase in tunnel construction, tunnel-collapse incidents and excessive deformation are occurring more frequently. In addition, longer tunnel structures are being constructed, and geologically weaker ground conditions are increasingly being encountered during the construction process. Tunnels constructed under weak ground conditions exhibit long-term deformation behavior that leads to tunnel instability. This study analyzes the behavior of the bottom region of tunnels under geological conditions of long-term deformation. Long-term deformation causes various types of damage, such as cracks and ridges in the packing part of tunnels, as well as cracks and upheavals in the pavement of tunnels. We observed rapid tunnel over-displacement due to the squeezing of a fault rupture zone after the inflow of a large amount of groundwater. Excessive increments in the support member strength resulted in damage to the support and tunnel bottom. In addition, upward infiltration pressure on the tunnel road was found to cause severe pavement damage. Furthermore, smectite (a highly expandable mineral), chlorite, illite, and hematite, were also observed. Soil samples and rock samples containing clay minerals were found to have greater expansibility than general soil samples. Considering these findings, countermeasures against the deformation of tunnel bottoms are required.

Investigating damage potential of the railway infrastructure requires either large amount of case histories or in-depth numerical analyses, or both for which large amounts of effort and time are necessary to accomplish thoroughly. Rather than performing comprehensive studies for each damage case, in this study we collect and analyze a case history of the high-speed railway system damaged by the 2004 M6.6 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake for the development of the seismic fragility curve. The development processes are: 1) slice the railway system as 200 m segments and assigned damage levels and intensity measures (IMs) to each segment; 2) calculate probability of damage for a given IM; 3) estimate fragility curves using the maximum likelihood estimation regression method. Among IMs considered for fragility curves, spectral acceleration at 3 second period has the most prediction power for the probability of damage occurrence. Also, viaduct-type structure provides less scattered probability data points resulting in the best-fitted fragility curve, but for the tunnel-type structure data are poorly scattered for which fragility curve fitted is not meaningful. For validation purpose fragility curves developed are applied to the 2016 M7.0 Kumamoto earthquake case history by which another high-speed railway system was damaged. The number of actual damaged segments by the 2016 event is 25, and the number of equivalent damaged segments predicted using fragility curve is 22.21. Both numbers are very similar indicating that the developed fragility curve fits well to the Kumamoto region. Comparing with railway fragility curves from HAZUS, we found that HAZUS fragility curves are more conservative.

In the current work, a series of three-dimensional finite element analyses have been conducted to investigate the behaviour of pre-existing single piles in response to adjacent tunnelling by considering the tunnel face pressures and the relative locations of the pile tips with respect to the tunnel. Via numerical modelling, the effect of the face pressures on the pile behaviour has been analysed. In addition, the analyses have concentrated on the ground settlements, the pile head settlements and the shear stress transfer mechanism at the pile-soil interface. The settlements of the pile directly above the tunnel crown (with a vertical distance between the pile tip and the tunnel crown of 0.25D, where D is the tunnel diameter) with a face pressure of 50% of the in situ horizontal soil stress at the tunnel springline decreased by approximately 38% compared to the corresponding pile settlements with the minimum face pressure, namely, 25% of the in situ horizontal soil stress at the tunnel springline. Furthermore, the smaller the face pressure is, the larger the tunnelling-induced ground movements, the axial pile forces and the interface shear stresses. The ground settlements and the pile settlements were heavily affected by the face pressures and the positions of the pile tip with respect to the tunnel. When the piles were inside the tunnel influence zone, tensile forces were induced on piles, while compressive pile forces were expected to develop for piles that are outside the influence zone and on the boundary. In addition, the computed results have been compared with relevant previous studies that were reported in the literature. The behaviour of the piles that is triggered by adjacent tunnelling has been extensively examined and analysed by considering the several key features in substantial detail.

A stress-induced brittle failure in deep tunneling generates spalling and slabbing, eventually causing a v-shaped notch formation. An empirical relationship for the depth of the notch to the maximum tangential stress assuming an equivalent circular cross-section was proposed (Martin et al. 1999). While this empirical approach has been well recognized in the industry and used as a design guideline in many projects, its applicability to a non-circular opening is worth revisiting due to the use of equivalent circular profile. Moreover, even though the extent of the notch also contributes to notch failure, it has not been estimated to date. When the estimate of both the depth and the extent of notch are combined, a practical and economically justifiable support design can be achieved. In this study, a new methodology to assess the depth as well as the extent of notch failure is developed. Field data and numerical simulations using the Cohesion Weakening Frictional Strengthening (CWFS) model were collected and correlated with the three most commonly accepted failure criteria (σ₁/σ₃, D_is=σ_max/σ_c, σ_dev/σ_cm). For the numerical analyses, the D-shaped tunnel was used since most civil tunnels are built to this profile. Inferential statistical analysis is applied to predict the failure range with a 95% confidence level. Considering its accuracy and simplicity, the new correlation can be used as an enhanced version of failure assessment.

Umbrella Arch Method (UAM) often employed in the tunnel construction under poor rock mass conditions in Korea. Insertion of steel pipes at the periphery of the tunnel and infiltration of grouts along the pipes into the rock masses increases tunnel stability. There are two major effects of grouts expected at the tunnel face: 1) increase of face stability by enhancing the frictional resistance of discontinuities and 2) decrease of permeability along the rock masses. Increase of resistance and decrease of permeability requires a certain curing time for the grout. In Korea, we require 24 hours for curing of grout, which means no progress of excavation for 24 hours after infiltration of grouts. This step delays the tunnel construction sequences. To eliminate such inefficiency, we propose MTG (Method for Tunnel construction using Grouting technology), which uses extended length of steel pipes (14 m) compared to conventional pipe roof method (12 m). The merit of MTG is the reduction of curing time. Because of the approximately 2 m extension of the length of steel pipe, blasting can be done after infiltration of grouting. For this paper, we conducted experiments on the shear strength behaviors of grout infilled rock joint with elapsing of curing time and blasting induced vibration. The results show that blasting induced vibration under MTG does not influence the mechanical features of grout material, which indicates no influence on the mechanical behaviors of grout, contributing to the stability of tunnels during excavation. This result indicates that MTG is a cost effective and fast construction method for tunneling in Korea.

The magnitude and distribution of tunnel deformation were widely discussed topics in tunnel engineering. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element program was used for the analysis of various horseshoe-shaped opening expressway tunnels under different geologies. Two rock material models - Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown were executed in the process of analyses; and the results show that the magnitude and distribution of tunnel deformation were close by these two models. The tunnel deformation behaviors were relevant to many factors such as cross-sections and geological conditions; but the geology was the major factor to the normalized longitudinal deformation profile (LDP). If the time-dependent factors were neglected, the maximum displacements were located at the distance of 3 to 4 tunnel diameters behind the excavation face. The ratios of displacement at the excavation face to the maximum displacement were around 1/3 to 1/2. In general, the weaker the rock mass, the larger the ratio. The displacements in front of the excavation face were decreased with the increasement of distance. At the distance of 1.0 to 1.5 tunnel diameter, the displacements were reduced to one-tenth of the maximum displacement.