• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.331-338
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• 2022

Face stability analyses provides the most probable failure mechanisms and the understanding about parameters that need to be considered for the evaluation of ground movements caused by tunneling. After the Upper Bound Method (UBM) solution which can consider the influence of seepage forces and depth-dependent effective cohesion is verified with the numerical experiments, the probabilistic model is proposed to calculate the unbiased limiting tunnel collapse pressure. A reliability analysis of a shallow circular tunnel driven by a pressurized shield in a frictional and cohesive soil is presented to consider the inherent uncertainty in the input parameters and the proposed model. The probability of failure that exceeding a specified applied pressure at the tunnel face is estimated. Sensitivity and importance measures are computed to identify the key parameters and random variables in the model.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-46
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• 2020

In the current work, a series of three-dimensional finite element analyses have been carried out to understand the behaviour of pre-existing single piles to adjacent tunnelling by considering the tunnel face pressures and the relative location of pile tips with respect to the tunnel. The numerical modelling has analysed the effect of the face pressures on the pile behaviour. The analyses concentrate on the ground settlements, the pile head settlements, the axial pile forces and the shear stress transfer mechanism at the pile-soil interface. The head settlements of the pile (the vertical distance between the pile and the tunnel: 0.25D, where D is the tunnel diameter) directly above the tunnel crown with the face pressure 50% of the in-situ horizontal soil stress at the tunnel springline decreased by about 38% compared to corresponding settlements with a face pressure 25% of the in-situ horizontal soil stress at the tunnel springline. Furthermore, it was found that the smaller the face pressure, the larger the tunnelling-induced ground movements and the axial pile forces were and the higher the degree of the shear strength mobilisation at the pile-soil interface. When the piles were outside the tunnel influence zone, compressive pile forces were developed due to tunnelling. It has been found that the ground settlements and the pile settlements are heavily affected by the face pressures and the position of the pile tip relative to the tunnel. In addition, the computed results have been compared with relevant studies previously reported in literature. The behaviour of the piles has been extensively examined and analysed by considering the key features in great detail.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.79-89
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• 2012

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on the closure ratio of tunnel face to reduce pressure and displacement occurring at tunnel face during tunnel excavation. In experimental study, model tests are carried out according to the closure ratio of tunnel face and tunnel depth. Model test results are analyzed and interpreted by numerical calculation in order to verify results obtained from experimental and numerical studies. It is clearly found that tunnel face stability increases with the increase of the closure ratio of tunnel face. The results also show that tunnel face is stable when the closure ratio of tunnel face is larger than 80%. This research will be very useful to develop the economical tunnel face closing system.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2006

A large sectional tunnelling method using Shield TBM is expected to be popular as domestic demand of long tunnel gets growing. Although a shield tunnelling method has been recognized as prominent method in consideration of stability and applicability in shallow and poor ground, the cases of accident and constructional trouble have been often happened due to unexpected poor ground condition, or selection and use of improper shield machine. Especially, troubling cases at tunnel face are frequently occurred, so supporting pressure control of tunnel face would be the main issue for securing safer and more efficient tunnel excavation using Shield TBM. In this point, we carried out the numerical feed-back analysis to compare the ground deformation pattern with theoretical result at tunnel face.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.235-245
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• 2019

This paper presents a novel methodology for face stability assessment of rock tunnels under water table by combining the kinematical approach of limit analysis and numerical simulation. The tunnels considered in this paper are excavated in fractured rock masses characterized by the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. In terms of natural rock deposition, a more convincing case of depth-dependent mi, GSI, D and ${\sigma}_c$ is taken into account by proposing the horizontally layered discretization technique, which enables us to generate the failure surface of tunnel face point by point. The vertical distance between any two adjacent points is fixed, which is beneficial to deal with stability problems involving depth-dependent rock parameters. The pore water pressure is numerically computed by means of 3D steady-state flow analyses. Accordingly, the pore water pressure for each discretized point on the failure surface is obtained by interpolation. The parametric analysis is performed to show the influence of depth-dependent parameters of $m_i$, GSI, D, ${\sigma}_c$ and the variation of water table elevation on tunnel face stability. Finally, several design charts for an undisturbed tunnel are presented for quick calculations of critical support pressures against face failure.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.433-452
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• 2018

The shield tunneling method can minimize surface settlements by preventing the deformation of tunnel face and tunnel intrados due to tunnel excavation. For this purpose, it is very important to control the operating conditions of shield TBM. The face pressure and backfill pressure for tail void grouting should be the most important and immediate measure not only to restrain surface settlement, but also to influence the effective stress and pore water pressure around the circumstance of tunnel during excavation. The reaction of the ground to the application of face pressure and backfill pressure relies on the stiffness and permeability of ground. Especially, the reaction of saturated clayey ground formations, which shows the time-dependent deformation, is different from the permeable ground. Hence, in this paper it was investigated how the TBM operating conditions, ground stiffness, and permeability impact on the surface settlement of saturated clayey ground. For this purpose, a series of parametric studies were carried out by means of the stress-pore water pressure coupled FE analysis. The results show that the settlement of soft clayey ground is divided into the immediate settlement and consolidation settlement. Especially, the consolidation settlement depends on the ground stiffness and permeability. In addition, the existence of critical face pressure and backfill pressure was identified. The face pressure and backfill pressure above the critical value may cause an unexpected increase in the ground settlement.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1003-1022
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• 2018

In the current work, a series of three-dimensional finite element analyses were carried out to understand the behaviour of a pre-existing single pile to the changes of the tunnel face pressures when a shield TBM tunnel passes underneath the pile. The numerical modelling analysed the results by considering various face pressures (25~100% of the in-situ horizontal stress prior to tunnelling at the tunnel springline). In the numerical modelling, several key issues, such as the pile settlements, the axial pile forces, the shear stresses have been thoroughly analysed for different face pressures. The head settlements of the pile with the maximum face pressure decreased by about 44% compared to corresponding settlement with the minimum face pressure. Furthermore, the maximum axial force of the pile developed with the minimum face pressure. The tunnelling-induced axial pile force at the minimum face pressure was found to be about 21% larger than that with the maximum face pressure. It has been found that the ground settlements and the pile settlements are heavily affected by the face pressures. In addition, the influence of the piles and the ground was analysed by considering characteristics of the soil deformations. Also, the apparent safety factor of the piles are substantially reduced for all the analyses conducted in the current simulation, resulting in severe effects on the adjacent piles. Therefore, the behaviour of the piles, according to change the face pressures, has been extensively examined and analysed by considering the key features in great details.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.273-280
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• 2003

Tunneling in difficult geological conditions is often inevitable especially in urban areas. Ground improvement and reinforcement techniques are often required to guarantee safe tunnel excavations and/or to prevent damage to adjacent structures. The steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting method has been recently applied to tunnel sites in Korea as an auxiliary technique. In this study, the face stability with steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting was evaluated by simultaneously considering two factors: one is the effective stress acting on the tunnel face calculated by limit theorem and limit equilibrium method; the other is the seepage force obtained by means of numerical analysis. The study revealed that the influence of the steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting on the support pressure in dry condition is not significant while there is relatively a large amount of reduction in seepage forces by adopting the technique in saturated condition. The effect of the anisotropy of permeability on the seepage force acting on the tunnel face was also estimated by conducting the coupled analysis. It was found that a higher horizontal permeability compared with the vertical one causes reduction in the seepage force acting on the tunnel face.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.193-205
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• 2022

The face stability of shield tunnelling is the most important control index for safety risk management. Based on the reliability of the transparent clay (TC) model test, a series of TC model tests under different buried depth were conducted to investigate the progressive failure mechanism of tunnel face. The support pressure was divided into the rapid descent stage, the slow descent stage and the basically stable stage with company of the local failure and integral failure in the internal of the soil during the failure process. The relationship between the support pressure and the soil movement characteristics of each failure stage was defined. The failure occurred from the soil in front of the tunnel face and propagated as the slip zone and the loose zone. The fitted formulas were proposed for the calculation of the failure process. The failure mode in clay was specified as the basin shape with an inverted trapezoid shape for shallow buried and appeared as the basin shape with a teardrop-like shape in deep case. The implications of these findings could help in the safety risk management of the underground construction.