Prediction of transverse settlement trough considering the combined effects of excavation and groundwater depression

Abstract

There are two primary causes of the ground movement due to tunnelling in urban areas; firstly the lost ground and secondly the groundwater depression during construction. The groundwater depression was usually not considered as a cause of settlement in previous research works. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the combined effect of these two phenomena on the transverse settlement trough. Centrifuge model tests and numerical analysis were primarily selected as the methodology. The characteristics of settlement trough were analyzed by performing centrifuge model tests where acceleration reached up to 80g condition. Two different types of tunnel models of 180 mm diameter were prepared in order to match the prototype of a large tunnel of 14.4 m diameter. A volume loss model was made to simulate the excavation procedure at different volume loss and a drainage tunnel model was made to simulate the reduction in pore pressure distribution. Numerical analysis was performed using FLAC 2D program in order to analyze the effects of various groundwater depression values on the settlement trough. Unconfined fluid flow condition was selected to develop the phreatic surface and groundwater level on the surface. The settlement troughs obtained in the results were investigated according to the combined effect of excavation and groundwater depression. Subsequently, a new curve is suggested to consider elastic settlement in the modified Gaussian curve. The results show that the effects of groundwater depression are considerable as the settlement trough gets deeper and wider compared to the trough obtained only due to excavation. The relationships of maximum settlement and infection point with the reduced pore pressure at tunnel centerline are also suggested.