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

在英国和世界各地，城市环境中的隧道开挖对于提供必要的基础设施至关重要。此外，随着城市化的持续进行，重大基础设施项目可能会增加，其中许多项目需要挖掘隧道。然而，隧道施工可能会使建筑物处于危险之中。因此，可靠的评估工具来预测隧道开挖引起的损害是必不可少的，以确定是否有必要采取保护措施。存在有用的模型来预测隧道引起的损害，但这些方法需要改进，利用新的和现有的数据和增加计算资源。本建议的主要目的是获得必要的实验数据，以改善预测隧道引起的沉降损害的分析和计算方法。具体而言，这将通过三个主要步骤来实现。首先，离心试验，其中小规模的模型可以用来研究全尺寸的结构，将被用来评估在隧道施工过程中的土壤和结构的相互作用。特别是，逼真的比例模型将被3D打印，并直接模拟隧道掘进过程。其次，这些物理测试将通过计算模拟，以评估和改进计算方法。第三，额外的模拟将允许扩展的实验结果，以广泛的隧道施工的场景。实验和计算结果将直接用于创建改进的分析和计算准则，预测隧道施工引起的沉降损害。将根据现有的实地数据对这些准则进行评价。预计这些结果将对英国和世界各地的隧道行业产生直接影响。

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.