Tunnelling-induced settlement damage to masonry structures: Centrifuge testing and computational modelling

在英国和世界各地，在城市环境中挖掘隧道对于提供必要的基础设施是必不可少的。此外，随着城市化的继续，重大基础设施项目可能会增加，其中许多项目将需要挖掘隧道。然而，隧道施工可能会使建筑物处于危险之中。因此，预测隧道施工损伤的可靠评估工具对于确定是否需要采取防护措施至关重要。有一些有用的模型可以预测隧道施工引起的损害，但这些方法需要改进，利用新的和现有的数据并增加计算资源。这一建议的主要目的是获得必要的实验数据，以改进预测隧道施工引起的沉降破坏的分析和计算方法。具体地说，这将通过三个主要步骤实现。首先，离心机试验将被用来评估隧道施工过程中土壤和结构物之间的相互作用。特别是，逼真的比例模型将被3D打印，并直接模拟隧道施工过程。其次，将对这些物理试验进行计算模拟，以评估和改进计算方法。第三，额外的模拟将允许将实验结果扩展到更广泛的隧道施工场景。实验和计算结果将直接用于建立改进的分析和计算准则，用于预测隧道施工引起的沉降破坏。这些准则将根据现有的实地数据进行评估。预计这些结果将对英国和世界各地的隧道行业产生立竿见影的影响。

In the United Kingdom, and throughout the world, tunnelling in urban environments is essential to provide necessary infrastructure. Further, major infrastructure projects, many of which will require tunnelling, will be likely to increase with continued urbanization. However, tunnelling can place buildings at risk. Therefore, reliable assessment tools to predict tunnelling-induced damage are essential to determine whether protective measures are necessary. Useful models exist for predicting tunnelling-induced damage, but these methods need refinement, making use of new and existing data and increasing computational resources. The primary aim of this proposal is to obtain the necessary experimental data to improve analytical and computational methods of predicting tunnelling-induced settlement damage. Specifically, this will be achieved through three primary steps. First, centrifuge testing, in which small scale models can be used to investigate full scale structures, will be used to evaluate the interaction of the soil and the structure during the tunnelling process. In particular, realistic scale models will be 3D printed and the tunnelling process directly simulated. Second, these physical tests will be simulated computationally, to evaluate and improve computational methods. Third, additional simulations will allow extension of experimental results to a wide range of tunnelling scenarios.The experimental and computational results will be directly used to create improved analytical and computational guidelines for predicting tunnelling-induced settlement damage. These guidelines will be evaluated with respect to existing field data. It is envisioned that these results will have an immediate impact on the tunnelling industry in the UK and around the world.