Quantitative analysis of construction risks in shallowly buried biased tunnel portal section

Abstract

Abstract To address the prominent problem of collapse instability in shallow buried soft ground tunnels, a non-invasive stochastic finite element method was introduced. Taking Fujian Puyan Wenbishan tunnel as the background project, ABAQUS finite element software was used to analyze the tunnel excavation mechanics and parameter sensitivity. And developed the software interface program based on Python to output explicit limit state equation for the key mechanical indexes of the tunnel, so as to evaluate the tunnel reliability under different excavation methods, quantitatively. Study results show a significant improvement in efficiency and accuracy when calculating the probability of failure in tunnel excavation by the non-invasive stochastic finite element method. The maximum displacement monitoring points for the Wenbishan tunnel portal section were all vault settlement, with displacements of 33.6 mm, 30.2 mm, and 25.3 mm, respectively, using the annular retained core soil method, single sidewall guide pit and double sidewall guide pit method, with probabilities of failure of 36.11%, 28.03%, and 20.02%. It is found that the reliability of the tunnel is mainly determined by the geotechnical weight, elastic modulus and cohesion of the weak sandy soil layer, which can provide ideas for this type of engineering researches.

Keywords

• Non-invasive stochastic finite element
• Shallow buried bias tunnel
• Abaqus secondary development
• Reliability
• Failure probability