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Investigation of the Stress and Strain Distribution in the Surrounding Soil of a Tunnel Induced by the Double-Heading at Bottom Method

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Abstract

The tunneling process in water-rich silty fine sand stratum often faces challenges such as arch collapse due to the instability of the initial support arch foot. The present study focuses on the Taoshuping 3# inclined shaft section, modifies the two-side heading method (THM), and introduces the double-heading at bottom method (DBM). Field monitoring and numerical simulations are employed to investigate the formation pressure, deformation evolution, and the advantages of the construction scheme using the loosened zone and stress distribution features. The obtained results show that DBM exhibits a maximu m settlement during arch excavation, constituting approximately 36% of the total settlement, with a total value of 222.21 mm. Furthermore, the plastic zone induced by DBM ranges from 1.23 to 2 times the tunnel diameter, with vertical and horizontal surrounding soil pressures of 140.72 kPa and 46.25 kPa, respectively. DBM is markedly superior to THM. This approach reduces the formation of wedge-shaped shear bodies caused by excessive stress at the sidewalls in THM excavation. Even with tunnel excavation support, the surrounding soil maintains an arch effect, validated through calculations using Protodyakonovco theory and Terzaghi theory, verifying the efficiency of the support structure design.

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Data Availability

Data sets used in the current study are available with the author. It can be provided with reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The present work was subsidized and supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52178393), the Science and Technology Innovation Team of Shaanxi Innovation Capability Support Plan (No. 2020TD005), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2019JQ-756), and the Special Project of Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (No. 20JK0709).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of School of Civil Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China

    HuaiZheng Wang, ZhanPing Song, XiaoXu Tian, Bo Wen & YuWei Zhang

  2. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Space Engineering, Xi’an, China

    ZhanPing Song & YuWei Zhang

Authors
  1. HuaiZheng Wang
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  2. ZhanPing Song
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  3. XiaoXu Tian
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Mr. HW analysed the construction scheme and wrote the article. Prof. ZS provided the monitoring data; Dr. XT conceived the model and edited the paper; Prof. YZ, Prof. BW revised the language of the paper.

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Correspondence to ZhanPing Song.

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Wang, H., Song, Z., Tian, X. et al. Investigation of the Stress and Strain Distribution in the Surrounding Soil of a Tunnel Induced by the Double-Heading at Bottom Method. Int J Civ Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-024-00958-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-024-00958-1

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