Ground disturbance associated with shield tunneling,in overconsolidated stiff clay

SummaryGround Disturbance Associated with Shield Tunnelling, in Overconsolidated Stiff Clay The present paper attempts to describe the ground disturbance which occurs during a shield tunnelling, in an overconsolidated stiff clay. In particular, an effort has been made to find the possible main factors, which might affect the form and the magnitude of the detected ground movements.However, a correlation between the former factors and the actual performance of the clay was attempted, when it seemed possible and realizable. This was due to the fact that the overall process of tunnelling where the ground disturbance propagates in space, evolving in time is of some complexity like any multiparameter problem.Finally, by using the elasto-plastic approach, a simple analysis has been carriedout, on which the stress regime has been evaluated and properly connected with the tunnel advance.Ground deformations, predicted on that basis, were compared to the in-situ measurements making it easy to check the adopted concept.With 20 Figures