A computational framework to predict the water‐leakage pressure of segmental joints in underwater shield tunnels using an advanced finite element method

The construction of shield tunnels under riverbeds and seabeds has considerably increased over the past decades. Due to the ultra‐high water head, water leakage through tunnel joints is a major concern during a tunnel's service life. One practical solution to prevent groundwater penetration is to implement ethylene‐propylene‐diene‐monomer gaskets at the segmental joints. However, numerical simulation of fluid pressure penetration into rubber materials remains a challenging problem in computational mechanics. Severe mesh distortions can occur due to large deformation. Consequently, a convergent solution is difficult to achieve. This paper presents an Abaqus‐based numerical framework to solve the previously mentioned problem using the implicit finite element solver. The key aspects of this framework are twofold: (1) a remesh and re‐map algorithm to overcome the excessive mesh distortion, and (2) simulation of fluid penetration into the contact interface of the gaskets to reproduce the water‐leakage process at the tunnel joints. The proposed framework is first tested to simulate the gasket‐in‐groove mechanical behavior and is then validated using experimental data and the solution produced by an explicit finite element solver. The developed framework is then adopted to predict the water‐leakage pressure at gasketed tunnel joints to illustrate the practical applications. Finally, the numerical results are compared with experimental data to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method and confirm its superiority and effectiveness over existing methods. This novel method can be used by tunnel designers to analyze and estimate the waterproof behavior of gasketed joints in shield tunnels without performing extensive experimental testing works.