Analytical analysis of working face passive stability during shield tunneling in frictional soils

This paper develops the 2D and 3D kinematically admissible mechanisms for analyzing the passive face stability during shield tunneling using upper-bound analysis. The mechanisms consider trapezoidal distribution of support pressure along tunnel face and partial failure originated at tunnel face above invert. For cohesionless soils, the support pressure is a function of soil effective frictional angle φ′ which determines the inclination of failure block and the normalized soil cover depth C/D (soil cover depth/tunnel diameter) which affects the origination of the passive failure. For cohesive soils, the support pressure is a function of φ′, C/D, and the effective cohesion c′. The cohesion c′ has a relatively smaller impact on the support pressure than φ′ and C/D have. The mechanisms are verified by comparing the current solutions with a previous upper-bound solution. The comparison shows that the current solutions are a general solution which is capable of predicting the passive face failure originated at any depth along tunnel face and the previous solution is a particular solution with the assumption that the face failure originated at tunnel invert. The mechanisms are validated through application to a practical project of shallowly buried, large diameter underwater tunnel. The validation shows that the mechanisms are capable of assessing the tunnel face passive instability rationally.