• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1199-1213
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• 2011

Slurry type shield would be very effective for the tunnelling in a sandy ground, but low slurry pressure could cause a tunnel face failure or a ground settlement in front of the tunnel face. Thus, the stability of tunnel face could be maintained by applying an excess slurry pressure that is larger than the active earth pressure. However, the slurry pressure should increase properly because an excessively high slurry pressure could cause the slurry flow out or the passive failure of the frontal ground. It is possible to apply the high slurry pressure without passive failure if a horizontal impermeable layer is located in the ground in front of the tunnel face, but its location, size, and effects are not clearly known yet. In this research, two-dimensional model tests were carried out in order to find out the effect of a horizontal impermeable layer for the slurry shield tunnelling in a saturated sandy ground. As results, larger slurry pressure could be applied to increase the stability of the tunnel face when the impermeable layer was located in the ground above the crown in front of the tunnel face. The most effective length of the impermeable grouting layer was 1.0~1.5D, and the location was 1.0D above the crown level. The safety factor could be suggested as the ratio of the maximum slurry pressure to the active earth pressure at the tunnel face. It could also be suggested that the slurry pressure in the magnitude of 3.5~4.0 times larger than the active earth pressure at the initial tunnel face could be applied if the impermeable layer was constructed at the optimal location.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.347-370
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• 2011

Slurry type shield would be very effective for the tunnelling in a sandy ground, when the slurry pressure would be properly adjusted. Low slurry pressure could cause a tunnel face failure or a ground settlement in front of the tunnel face. Thus, the stability of tunnel face could be maintained by applying an excess slurry pressure that is larger than the active earth pressure. However, the slurry pressure should increase properly because an excessively high slurry pressure could cause the slurry flow out or the passive failure of the frontal ground. It is possible to apply the high slurry pressure without passive failure if a horizontal impermeable layer is located in the ground in front of the tunnel face, but its location, size, and effects are not clearly known yet. In this research, two-dimensional model tests were carried out in order to find out the effect of a horizontal impermeable layer for the slurry shield tunnelling in a saturated sandy ground. In tests slurry pressure was increased until the slurry flowed out of the ground surface or the ground fails. Location and dimension of the impermeable layer were varied. As results, the maximum and the excess slurry pressure in sandy ground were linearly proportional to the cover depth. Larger slurry pressure could be applied to increase the stability of the tunnel face when the impermeable layer was located in the ground above the crown in front of the tunnel face. The most effective length of the impermeable grouting layer was 1.0 ~ 1.5D, and the location was 1.0D above the crown level. The safety factor could be suggested as the ratio of the maximum slurry pressure to the active earth pressure at the tunnel face. It could also be suggested that the slurry pressure in the magnitude of 3.5 ~4.0 times larger than the active earth pressure at the initial tunnel face could be applied if the impermeable layer was constructed at the optimal location.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.301-318
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• 2017

Based on the existing research results, a three-dimensional failure mechanism of tunnel face was constructed. The dynamic seismic effect was taken into account on the basis of quasi-static method, and the nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was introduced into the limit analysis by using the tangent technique. The collapse pressure along with the failure scope of tunnel face was obtained through nonlinear limit analysis. Results show that nonlinear coefficient and initial cohesion have a significant impact on the collapse pressure and failure zone. However, horizontal seismic coefficient and vertical seismic proportional coefficient merely affect the collapse pressure and the location of failure surface. And their influences on the volume and height of failure mechanism are not obvious. By virtue of reliability theory, the influences of horizontal and vertical seismic forces on supporting pressure were discussed. Meanwhile, safety factors and supporting pressures with respect to 3 different safety levels are also obtained, which may provide references to seismic design of tunnels.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2020

To give a solution for seismic stability of tunnel faces subjected to earthquake ground shakings, the pseudo-dynamic approach is originally introduced to analyze tunnel face stability in this study. In the light of the upper-bound theorem of limit analysis, an advanced three-dimensional mechanism combined with pseudo-dynamic approach is proposed. Based on this mechanism, the required support pressure on tunnel face can be obtained by equaling external work rates to the internal energy dissipation and implementing an optimization searching procedure related to time. Both time and space feature of seismic waves are properly accounted for in the proposed mechanism. For this reason, the proposed mechanism can better represent the actual influence of seismic motion and has a remarkable advantage in evaluating the effects of vertical seismic acceleration, soil amplification factor, seismic wave period and initial phase difference on tunnel face stability. Furthermore, the pseudo-dynamic approach is compared with the pseudo-static approach. The difference between them is illustrated from a new but understandable perspective. The comparison demonstrates that the pseudo-static approach is a conservative method but still could provide precise enough results as the pseudo-dynamic approach if the value of seismic wavelengths is large or the height of soil structures is small.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2009

Considerable advance has been made on research on effect of steel pipe Umbrella Arch Method (UAM) and mechanical reinforcement mechanism through numerical analyses and experiments. Due to long analysis time of three-dimensional analysis and its complexity, un-quantitative two-dimensional analysis is dominantly used in the design and application, where equivalent material properties of UAM reinforced area and ground are used, For this reason, development of reasonable, theoretical, quantitative and easy to use design and analysis method is required. In this study, both field UAM tests and laboratory tests were performed in the residual soil to highly weathered rock; field tests to observe the range of reinforcement, and laboratory tests to investigate the change of material properties between prior to and after UAM reinforcement. It has been observed that the increase in material property of neighboring ground is negligible, and that only stiffness of steel pipe and cement column formed inside the steel pipe and the gap between steel pipe and borehole contributes to ground reinforcement. Based on these results and concept of Convergence Confinement Method (CCM), two dimensional axisymmetric analyses have been performed to obtain the longitudinal displacement profile (LDP) corresponding to arching effect of tunnel face, UAM effect and effect of supports. In addition, modified load distribution method in two dimensional plane-strain analysis has been suggested, in which effect of UAM is transformed to internal pressure and modified load distribution ratios are suggested. Comparison between the modified method and conventional method shows that larger displacement occur in the conventional method than that in the modified method although it may be different depending on ground condition, depth and size of tunnel, types of steel pipe and initial stress state. Consequently, it can be concluded that the effect of UAM as a beam in a longitudinal direction is not considered properly in the conventional method.