• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.41-48
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• 2001

In this study, two factors are simultaneously considered for assessing tunnel face stability: one is the effective stress acting on the tunnel face calculated by upper bound solution; and the other is the seepage force calculated by numerical analysis under the condition of steady-state groundwater flow. The seepage forces calculated by numerical analysis are compared with the results of a model test. From the results of derivations of the upper bound solution with the consideration of seepage forces acting on the tunnel face, it could be found that the minimum support pressure for the face stability is equal to the sum of effective support pressure and seepage pressure acting on the tunnel face. Also it could be found that the average seepage pressure acting on the tunnel face is proportional to the hydrostatic pressure at the same elevation and the magnitude is about 22% of the hydrostatic pressure for the drainage type tunnel and about 28% for the water-proof type tunnel. The model tests performed with a tunnel model had a similar trend with the seepage pressure calculated by numerical analysis. From the model tests it could be also found that the collapse at the tunnel face occurs suddenly and leads to unlimited displacement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.769-774
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• 2018

The growth of cities requires the construction of new tunnels close to the existing ones. Prediction and control of ground movement around the tunnel are important especially in urban area. The ground respond due to EPB (Earth Pressure Balance) pressure are investigated using the finite element method by ABAQUS in intersection of the triplet tunnels (Line 2, 3 and 4) of Mashhad Urban Railway in Iran. Special attention is paid to the effect of EPB pressure on the tunnel face displacement. The results of the analysis show that in EPB tunneling, surface settlement and face displacement is related to EPB pressure. Moreover, it is found that tunnel construction sequence is a great effect in face displacement value. For this study, this value in Line 4 where is excavated after line 3, is smaller than that line. In addition, the trend of the displacement curves are changed with the depth for all lines where is located in above and below, close to and above the centerline tunnel face for Line 2, 3 and 4, respectively. It is concluded that: (i) the surface settlement decreases with increasing EPB pressure on the tunnel face; (ii) at a constant EPB pressure, the tunnel face displacement values increase with depth. In addition, this is depended on the tunneling sequence; (iii) the trend of the displacement curves change with the depth.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2016

This study estimates tunnel face pressure through existing 8 analytical equations and 3D numerical analysis, and compares and examines it. In general, the estimating tunnel face pressure of domestic shield TBM has been examined by a method according to analytical equation and empirical method, but numerical analysis is combined in a section passing complicated stratigraphic condition and special soil condition. Therefore, the researcher is to find a reliable method to examine of tunnel face pressure by confirming a correlation between tunnel face pressure estimated by equation and tunnel face pressure estimated by numerical analysis program. When tunnel face pressure is estimated, both analytical equation and numerical analysis were identically examined in soil conditions such as sandy soil and cohesive soil. In addition, existing analytical equation is used as equation, and 3D analysis copying construction process and shield tunnel as numerical analysis.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.187-200
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• 2020

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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.1335-1342
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• 2005

In this paper, there is intended to introduce the new tunnel face shape, that is concave shaped face, and discusses its effects on the tunnel stabilization. Therefore, a comparative analysis in which the stability of a concave face was compared to that of a conventional plane face on the basis of displacement patterns in the tunnel face was conducted using a model test. In order to check and confirm displacement patterns on the concave face according to the radius of curvature as well as those around the face according to lateral pressure coefficient(k), two experimental concave models, produced at a scale of 1:2 and 1:5(tunnel radius), of the forefront of the curved area extended from plane face was built and tested.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.407-419
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• 2018

In order to investigate flow characteristics after water inrush from the working face in process of karst tunnel construction, numerical calculation for two class case studies of water inrush is carried out by using the FLUENT software on the background of Qiyueshan tunnel. For each class water inrush from the tunnel face, five cases under different water-inrush velocity are simulated and researched. Three probing lines are selected respectively in the left tunnel, cross passage, right tunnel and in the height direction of the tunnel centerline. The variation characteristics of velocity and pressure on each probing line under the five water-inrush velocities are analyzed. As for the selected four groups probing lines in the tunnels, the change rules of velocity and pressure on each group probing lines under the same water-inrush velocity are discussed. Finally, the water flow characteristics after inrush from the tunnel face are summarized by comparing the case studies. The results indicate that: (1) The velocity and pressure change greatly at the intersection area of the cross passage and the tunnels. (2) The velocity nearby the tunnel side wall is the minimum, while it is the maximum in the middle position. (3) The pressure value of every cross section in the tunnels is basically fixed. (4) As water-inrush velocity increases, the flow velocity and pressure in the tunnels also increase. The former is approximately proportional to their respective water-inrush velocity, while the latter is not. The research results provide a theoretical basis for making scientific and rational escape routes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 2019

Based on the results of Han et al. (2016), in the failure zone ahead of the tunnel face it can be obviously identified that a shear failure band occurs in the lower part and a pressure arch happens at the upper part, which was often neglected in analyzing the face stability of shield tunnel. In order to better describe the collapse failure feature of the tunnel face, a new improved failure mechanism is proposed to evaluate the face stability of shield tunnel excavated in layered soils in the framework of limit analysis by using spatial discretization technique and linear interpolation method in this study. The developed failure mechanism is composed of two parts: i) the rotational failure mechanism denoting the shear failure band and ii) a uniformly distributed force denoting the pressure arch effect. Followed by the comparison between the results of critical face pressures provided by the developed model and those by the existing works, which indicates that the new developed failure mechanism provides comparatively reasonable results.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.366-374
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• 2008

Tunnelling under water table induces many geotechnical problems because of groundwater. In subsea tunneling, reduction of face stability can induce flooding in the vicinity of a fracture zone characterized by high permeability and high water pressure. In this study, the effects of high water pressure on the stability of a tunnel face in a limited zone with high permeability(hazardous zone) are analyzed. On the basis of the 'advance core' concept, the seepage force acting on a hypothetical cylinder ahead of a tunnel face is modeled. This study focuses on the hydraulic behavior of the ground ahead of the tunnel face by three-dimensional steady-state seepage analyses. The impact of the hazardous zone on the seepage force and stability of the tunnel face are simulated and analyzed. In light of the analysis results, it is estimated that the distance from the tunnel face to the exterior boundary limit, which the seepage force significantly affects the stability of the tunnel face, of a hypothetical cylinder is approximately 5 times the tunnel radii. Despite the restrictive assumptions of this study, the results are highly indicative regarding the risks of hazardous zones.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.487-497
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• 2016

If a tunnel is excavated, the released stress is redistributed in the ground around the tunnel face, which lead the stress state of the surrounding ground of the tunnel and the load acting on the tunnel support to change. If the tunnel face deforms, the ground ahead of it is relaxed, and the earth pressure acting on it decreases. And if the displacement increases so much that, the ground ahead of the tunnel face reaches in failure state. At this time, load would be transferred longitudinally in the tunnel, depending on the cover and the face deformations. The longitudinal load transfers in the tunnels induced by the tunnelling has been often studied; however, the relation between the deformation of the tunnel face and the longitudinal load transfer was rarely studied. Therefore in this study assesses the characteristics of the longitudinal load transfer as the face was failed by displacement by conducting a model test in a shallow tunnel. In other words, the longitudinal load transfer of the tunnel with the progress of the face deform was measured by conducting a model test, beginning at the state of earth pressure at rest. As results of this study, most of the longitudinal load transfers occurred drastically at the beginning of the displacement of the tunnel face, and as the displacement of the face approached the ultimate displacement, it converged to the ultimate displacement at a gentler slope. In other words, when the ground ahead of the tunnel face was still in an elastic state, the longitudinally transferred load increased sharply at the beginning stage but it tended to increase gradually if it approached to the ultimate limit. Thus, it was noted that the earth pressure in the face and the longitudinal load transfer of the tunnel had the same decreasing tendency.