Paper 126

2003, Civil-Comp Ltd., Stirling, Scotland Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Civil and Structural Engineering Computing, B.H.V. Topping (Editor), Civil-Comp Press, Stirling, Scotland.

Ground Displacements around a Tunnel using Three Dimensional Modelling

M.K. Swailem and A.Z. Awad Structural Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt Civil Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract
The El-Azhar Road Tunnels consisted of two tunnels of 9.40 meter external diameter, 1700 meters in length, the tunnels will be constructed with a closed face machine and lined with precast segments. The tunnels must be constructed using a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) with the closed form face with earth pressure balancing and Bentonite slurry (mix-shield TBM). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the behavior of El-Azhar Road Tunnels with respect to stress reduction at the face of an excavation. This is important to control ground deformation and excess pore water pressure due to the process of shield tunnelling in three dimension and time-dependent. The excavation stages during the advance of the machine in 3-D consolidation analysis is simulated. The ability of the method to account for nonlinear material behavior through iterative processes allows the simulation of a realistic material behavior. Meanwhile the ability to divide the excavation process into several loading steps allows the inspection of the various stages of excavation and the observation of stress paths followed by different elements in the soil continuum. The Quality Control for the tunnel construction is achieved by using different devices for field measurements (horizontal, vertical displacement for the soil and ring deformation). Keywords: closed face TBM, field measurements, nonlinear finite element analysis, primary and secondary lining.

Introduction

In the heart of the Fatimide area of Cairo, Egypt, architectural treasures are scattered, which need to be valued. The Egyptian authorities have thus decided to build two road tunnels to provide direct communication between Salah Salem street and Opera Square, to reduce the above ground traffic which in turn will allow valuation of this district for tourism and will provide a vital link to the highways.

A numerical model to simulate explicitly the behavior of excess pore water pressure mobilization and its dissipation in time. For the TBM tunnelling techniques, the positive pressure is applied to support the tunnel face and the grouting material is injected to decrease the deformation into the tail void gap behind the shield. Hence, this study is employed on 3-D model to investigate the impact of the most important parameters, which are the slurry pressure and grouting pressure.

Figure (1): Showing the tunnel segments after construction

Three-Dimensional F.E.M of The Tunnelling Face

An elasto-plastic model based on Mohr-Coulomb elastic -perfectly plastic model in the three-dimensional analysis. Fig.(1) shows the mesh and their boundary conditions. It consists of 560 elements each of 20 nodes which results of 450 nodal points and a global stiffness matrix of 4800 equations. A constant tunnel diameter of 9.40 m is chosen for all analysis with H/D =3. Elements at near the ground surface were assigned linear elastic material properties incase of frictional material Youngs modulus for the elastic state is chosen to be 20000 KN/m^2 and poisons ratio 0.3 and the unit weight of the soil continuum equal 16 KN /m^3. Each run includes a number of steps ranging between 80 and 100. The first step consists of applying initial state of stresses. Linear elastic model is assumed with a poisons ratio calculated based on the chosen coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest ko.

The second step consisted of applying the actual material properties. The excavation of tunnel region is simulated by eliminating the excavated elements from the global stiffness matrix and then by applying nodal forces at the boundaries of the excavation that are equivalent to the stresses at one side of the boundary. The supporting system at the circumferential boundary of the tunnel shaft (the shield and the liner) is assumed to be rigid and high stiffness parameters are selected for elements at this region. The following steps consist of gradually reducing the pressure applied at the face following about 4 steps and allowing an iteration strain tolerance of 10^-4.

Figure (2): Three dimensional finite element Mesh

Basic Equations of Steady Flow

Flow in a porous medium can be described by Darcy's law. Considering flow in a vertical x-y-plane the following equations apply: qx = - k x
x

qy = - k y

(3.1)

The equations express that the specific discharge, q, follows from the permeability, k, and the gradient of the groundwater head. The head , , is defined as follows: = yp

(3.2)

where y is the vertical position, p is the stress in the pore fluid (negative for pressure) and w is the unit weight of the pore fluid. For steady flow the continuity condition applies:
qx q y + x y

=0

(3.3)

Eq. (3.3) expresses that there is not net inflow or outflow in an elementary area, as illustrated in Fig. 3.1.

Figure (3.1): Illustration of continuity condition

3.1

Finite Element Discretisation

The groundwater head in any position within an element can be expressed in the values at the nodes of that element: ( ,) = N e (3.4)

where N is the vector with interpolation functions and and are the local coordinates within the element. According to Eq. (3.1) the specific discharge is based on the gradient of the groundwater head. This gradient can be determined by means of the B-matrix, which contains the spatial derivatives of the interpolation functions. In order to describe flow for saturated soil (underneath the phreatic line) as well as non-saturated soil (above the phreatic line), a reduction function K r is introduced in Darcy's law (Desai, 1976; Li & Desai, 1983; Bakker, 1989): qx = - K r k x
x

qy = - K r k y

(3.5)

The reduction function K r is defined as: tensile pore pressures: Kr = compression pore pressures: K r = 1 transition zone: K r = + (1 - )

w - p w

This above relationship is illustrated in Fig. 3.2. It is not based on physical experience or experiments, but it is a numerical artifact that is necessary to solve unconfined problems.

Figure (3.2):Adjustment of the permeability between saturated and unsaturated zones (Kr = ratio of numerical permeability over saturated permeability) Figs.(4.3) demonstrate the contour maps for the resultant displacement for the model and given the maximum value of 65 mm at the face of cavity decreased to 7 mm at a distance 16 m along the longitudinal tunnel center line at the non excavated side.

Figure (4.3) :The displacement contour map for the 3-D model 5

The maximum strain through the contour map for the strains and it is clear that the effected area is bounded by a distance of 10m before the face and 15m after the face along the tunnel center line, the maximum strain located at the face directly and equal to 0.00654 .

Monitoring Results

The distribution of the instrumentation used for monitoring the El-Azhar Road Tunnels during construction are presented in NAT document, 1999. The most important readings are those of EB2, EB4 and DP1 because they are the closest points to the CWO sewer. The readings of extensometer EB4 at point (1) elevation (+8.30) was 2.5 mm while that of the deep point DP1 was 3.0 mm. Inclinometer measurements showed a maximum final movement of 3.75 mm while surface settlement points readings were 2 to 5 mm. Figures (5.1) and (5.2) show settlement readings records during CWO crossing.

Figure (5.1) : Distribution of the instrumentations used for monitoring the tunnels

Figure (5.2) :Soil displacements recorded by extensometer EB2

Conclusion

An elasto-plastic model based on Mohr-Coulomb elastic -perfectly plastic model in the three-dimensional analysis is prepared for the face stability of the closed face TBM, simulating the soil continuum with half the model is excavated and the bentonite slurry machine ( TBM) is working at the end of this half. Four to six incremental loads is used in the analysis. Comparison of the results with actual case of the El-Azhar Road Tunnelsl shows the effects of the method of soil support and those of the ground condition on the displacement field around the excavation and on the liner loading system, the maximum vertical displacement over the tunnel crown about 14 MM, and this value is within the allowable value for this zone.

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