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Analysis of the Soil Loss and Settlement of Silty Clay with Different Subclassifications

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Abstract

There is an ever-growing demand for the construction of silty clay stratum tunnels; therefore, effectively controlling the surface settlement caused by tunnel construction has become an important task. Since the physical indexes of silty clay greatly influence strength and deformation, based on the physical and mechanical indexes of 3192 groups in three areas, quantitative and determinative indexes for the subclassification of silty clay are proposed using K-means clustering and the tracking records of the actual project. Then, the soil loss and settlement of different subclassifications of silty clay are studied through the standard Gauss error function. Empirical formulas for calculating the width of the settlement trough and the soil loss rate are proposed. The dispersion of the settlement parameters with different subclassifications indicates that the soil properties of the silty clay strata vary greatly with subclassification, and the influence range of the surrounding soil disturbance caused by excavation also varies. In addition, the change in the soil loss rate with the propulsion of the tunnel face in the same monitoring section is discussed. For subgrade V, the increasing soil loss rate reaches a maximum when the tunnel face reaches the monitoring sections. For subgrades VI1 and VI2, this rate changes mainly during the timeframe spanning from 5 days before excavation to 5 days after excavation. A numerical simulation was also carried out to validate the applicability of the Peck formula for silty clay tunnels. The numerical prediction and field measured data show that when the cover-to-diameter ratio is between 1 and 3, it is reasonable to use the Peck formula to analyze the surface settlement of a silty clay tunnel. This paper can provide guidance based on experience for the subclassification of the soil surrounding rock and for the prediction of the ground surface settlement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41572275).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Geotechnical and Structural Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China

    Ming-lei Hou, Wan-tao Ding, Ke-qi Liu & Lei Chen

  2. Shandong Highway Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd, Jinan, 250102, China

    Xiang-gang Wang

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  1. Ming-lei Hou
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Correspondence to Wan-tao Ding.

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Hou, Ml., Ding, Wt., Wang, Xg. et al. Analysis of the Soil Loss and Settlement of Silty Clay with Different Subclassifications. Geotech Geol Eng 38, 5819–5838 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-020-01395-2

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