Experimental study on the longitudinal load transfer of a shallow tunnel depending on the deformation tunnel face (I)

If a tunnel is excavated, the released stress is redistributed in the ground around the tunnel face, which lead the stress state of the surrounding ground of the tunnel and the load acting on the tunnel support to change. If the tunnel face deforms, the ground ahead of it is relaxed, and the earth pressure acting on it decreases. And if the displacement increases so much that, the ground ahead of the tunnel face reaches in failure state. At this time, load would be transferred longitudinally in the tunnel, depending on the cover and the face deformations. The longitudinal load transfers in the tunnels induced by the tunnelling has been often studied; however, the relation between the deformation of the tunnel face and the longitudinal load transfer was rarely studied. Therefore in this study assesses the characteristics of the longitudinal load transfer as the face was failed by displacement by conducting a model test in a shallow tunnel. In other words, the longitudinal load transfer of the tunnel with the progress of the face deform was measured by conducting a model test, beginning at the state of earth pressure at rest. As results of this study, most of the longitudinal load transfers occurred drastically at the beginning of the displacement of the tunnel face, and as the displacement of the face approached the ultimate displacement, it converged to the ultimate displacement at a gentler slope. In other words, when the ground ahead of the tunnel face was still in an elastic state, the longitudinally transferred load increased sharply at the beginning stage but it tended to increase gradually if it approached to the ultimate limit. Thus, it was noted that the earth pressure in the face and the longitudinal load transfer of the tunnel had the same decreasing tendency.