Study On The Impact Of The Pipelines Of Different Diameters And Materials

By The Tunnel Excavation

Juanjuan Wang
1
, Jun Tan
2
, Chuanming Zhai
3
and Li Wang
4


1 Master; Engineering Faculty, C+E Center for Engineering Research Test and
Appraisal, Wanshou Road 27, Haidian District, Beijing 100840; Tel:010
-68207586;Fax:010-68207570;Email: ustbwjj@126.com
2 Doctor; Associate Research Fellow, C+E Center for Engineering Research Test
and Appraisal, Wanshou Road 27, Haidian District, Beijing 100840; Tel:010
-68207586;Fax:010-68207570;Email: tanjun_me@163.com
3 Professor; Senior engineer, C+E Center for Engineering Research Test and
Appraisal, Wanshou Road 27, Haidian District, Beijing 100840; Tel:010
-68207586;Fax:010-68207570;Email: zhaichuanming@ceedi.cn
4 Professor; Engineering Faculty, C+E Center for Engineering Research Test and
Appraisal, Wanshou Road 27, Haidian District, Beijing 100840; Tel:010
-68207586;Fax:010-68207570;Email: wangli@ceedi.cn

ABSTRACT

This paper used the numerical method to analyze the present conditions of the
pipelines. Here considered the pipelines of three different diameters and materials to
study the pipeline behavior when the nearby tunnel excavated, during the analysis,
five key factors were discussed respectively when the tunnel excavates, including the
horizontal distance and the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel, the
cross angle, the tunnel excavating procedure, the underground water table, then
found the influence law of the pipelines when the tunnel constructed. Numerical
simulation results showed that these factors above had different level effecting on the
present conditions of the pipelines, the horizontal distance and vertical distance
between the pipeline and the tunnel are the most influential factors, we must avoid
the subway and pipeline parallel during the construction because the pipelines
displacement will be very large, the impact the underground water table can not be
neglected. 10 meters horizontal distance and 10 meters vertical distance near the
concrete pipeline should not allowed doing the construction, that would result in
grave consequences of the pipelines.

KEYWORDS

Numerical Method; Pipeline; Present Conditions; Influence law

INTRODUCTION

As the fast development of the urban rail traffic, more and more new subway line
would near or crossover the exist underground pipelines (Bi et al., 2006). The
excavation of the new subway structure will bring about the stress redistribution of
the soil, and will certainly influence the safety of the underground pipelines (Li, et al.,
2001). The diameters and materials of the underground pipelines are varies here and
there, so it is important to find out the safe distance between the different kinds of
pipelines and the subway line, not only make sure the security of all kinds of
pipelines when excavation, but also guarantee the excavation of the tunnel go along
well.

PROJECT BACKGROUNG

Pipelines parameters. This paper used three typical diameters and materials of pipes,
separately research the influence of the pipelines during the excavation, The relative
position between the subway tunnel and the pipeline is expressed in Figure 1, the
tunnel the parameters of the three different pipes are as Table 1.


Figure 1. The relative position between the subway tunnel and the pipeline

Table 1. The Parameters of The Three Different Pipes.
Materials
Diameters
(mm)
Density
(kg/ m
3
)
Elasticity modulus (MPa)

Poisson ratio

Concrete 600 2500 30000 0.15
PVC 800 1550 2000 0.2
Steel 400 7850 200000 0.27

Excavation method and supporting conditions. Take the actual tunnel construction
as Engineering background to analyze the influence of the pipelines during the
excavation of the tunnel. The subway tunnel is excavated by the center diagram
method (Li et al., 2003), The cross section of the tunnel is divided into four parts as
shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2. The schematic diagram of tunnel lining and excavation sequence.

Theses parts are indicate with the letters A, B ,C and D. The length of each step in
the y direction is 5m, so there are total 4 steps for excavation. Before excavation, the
pipe roof protection has been finished. The primary and the secondary support are
constructed during excavation. The primary support is placed immediately after each
step is excavated (Klar et al., 2008). Only after the subsequent step and its primary
support is finished, could the secondary support of the prevenient step be placed. The
rest may be deduced by analogy. The concrete layer is 200mm in thickness and made
of the C20 concrete. A steel mesh with type of 6@200200mm is embedded into
the panel layer.

Geotechnical parameters. The dimension of the calculation model is
60m40m25m. Based on the physical-mechanical properties of the soil, the
Mohr-Coulomb model is used as the soil constitutive model. There are three soil
layers from up down. The parameters of the soil layers are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Parameters of The Soil layers.
Name
of soil
Density
(kg/m
3
)
Modulus of
elasticity
(MPa)
Poisson
ratio
Internal
friction
al Angle
Cohesion
MPa
Thickness
m
Miscell 1650 4.17 0.25 15 20 3
aneous
Silt
clay
1950 10.5 0.32 26.4 10 15
Silt
fine
sand
2000 34.52 0.23 35 5 7

Arrangement of the monitoring points. Set nine monitoring points on the ground,
the monitoring points arrangement is given in Figure 3. Take a section of pipeline
every over 3m in Y direction, and every 10m in X direction. The monitoring points
arrangement of the pipe is given in Figure 4, there are 8 monitor points on each
section of the pipe, 40 points in total.


Figure 3. Monitoring points arrangement.

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

During the excavation of the tunnel, five influence factors are considered, such as the
vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel, the horizon distance between
the pipeline and the tunnel, the cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel, the
tunnel excavating procedure, and the depth of the water table burial. One of the
models is shown in Figure 4.
FLAC3D 3.00
Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN USA
Step 7280 Model Perspective
10:53:51 Sat Apr 27 2013
Center:
X: 0.000e+000
Y: 1.000e+001
Z: -1.250e+001
Rotation:
X: 20.000
Y: 0.000
Z: 30.000
Dist: 1.779e+002 Mag.: 1
Ang.: 22.500
Block Group
n
guanbi
chuchen
erchen
suidao
Axes
Linestyle
X
Y
Z
FLAC3D 3.00
Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN USA
Step 7280 Model Perspective
15:43:50 Wed Oct 19 2011
Center:
X: 0.000e+000
Y: 1.000e+001
Z: -1.250e+001
Rotation:
X: 30.000
Y: 0.000
Z: 30.000
Dist: 1.779e+002 Mag.: 1
Ang.: 22.500
Block Group
n
guanbi
chuchen
erchen
suidao
Axes
Linestyle
X
Y
Z
Axes
Linestyle
X
Y
Z

Figure4. One of the models.

The pipeline is directly over the tunnel, the vertical distance between the pipeline and
the tunnel is 6m, and the cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel is 0 degree
(see Figure 3). The excavation of the tunnel is extended alongside the x axis, and
consistent with the stretch of the pipeline. The z axis denotes the vertical direction.

The influence of the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel.
Consider the pipelines of three different materials and diameters, take 7 different
vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel, when the vertical distance
changes from 5m to 11m, the vertical displacement and the stress of the pipelines
change accordingly, when the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel is
5m, the vertical displacement nephogram of the concrete pipe due to the excavation
is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The vertical displacement (m) nephogram of the concrete pipe.
When the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel changes, according to
the numerical results, the vertical displacement contrast diagram of the steel pipes,
the concrete pipes and the PVC pipes is shown as Figure 6.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel/m
t
h
e

v
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

o
f

t
h
e
p
i
p
e
l
i
n
e
/
m
m concrete
PVC
steel

Figure 6. The vertical displacement contrast of the three kinds of pipes.

The vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel has significant effects on
the stress and displacement, and the vertical displacement variation tendency of the
three kinds of pipes is accordant, the PVC pipe displacement is greater than the
concrete pipe and the steel pipe, and the steel pipe is influenced the least (see Figure
5). With the vertical distance increases, the vertical displacement of the three pipes
decreases gradually. When the vertical distance is less than 10 meters, the vertical
displacement of the pipes is obvious.
when the vertical distance between the pipeline and the tunnel changes, the stress of
the pipes is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. The Stress of The Pipes.
Stress(kPa)
The materials
of the pipes
The vertical distance between the pipeline and the
tunnel
`5m 8m 10m
The
horizontal
direction
PVC -100.87 -54.08 -42.32
concrete -144.23 -84 -56.55
steel -207.4 -150.38 -96.19
The vertical
direction
PVC -164.04 -101.14 -13.33
concrete -287.29 -179.25 -35.65
steel -480.5 -272.77 -75.23
The horizontal stress and the vertical stress of the three different kinds of pipes are
all decreased, the stress of the steel pipe is the biggest, and secondly is the concrete
pipe, the stress of the PVC pipes is the minimum (see Table 3). When the vertical
distance is more than 10 meters, the stress of all the three pipes is less than 100kPa.

The influence of the horizontal distance between the pipeline and the tunnel.
This paper chose 6 different horizontal distance from pipeline to the tunnel to do the
numerical analysis, when the distance changes, according to the numerical results,
the vertical displacement contrast of the three different kinds of pipes is shown as
Figure 7.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21
the horizontal distance between the pipelines and the tunnel/m
t
h
e

v
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

o
f

t
h
e
p
i
p
e
l
i
n
e
s
/
m
m
concrete
PVC
steel

Figure 7. The vertical displacement contrast of the three kinds of pipes.

The horizontal distance between the pipeline and the tunnel has significant effects on
the stress and displacement, and the vertical displacement of the PVC pipe and the
concrete pipe are larger than the steel pipe, with the horizontal distance increases, the
vertical displacement of the pipes decreases gradually, and when the distance is 12m,
the concrete pipe displacement is a little bigger than the 9 distance (see Figure 6).
When the vertical distance is more than 15 meters, the vertical displacement of the
pipes has little change and is not obvious.
when the horizontal distance between the pipeline and the tunnel changes, the stress
of the pipes is shown in Table 4.

Table 4. The Stress of The Pipes.
Stress(KPa)
The materials
of the pipes
The horizontal distance between the pipeline and
the tunnel
3m 6m 9m 12m 15m 20m
The
horizontal
direction
PVC -150.9 -104.3 -83.4 -49.3 -34.9 -30.1
concrete -184.2 -134 -92.5 -85.6 -75.2 -68.4
steel -247.4 -178.2 -122.8 -108.6 -98.4 -94.2
The vertical
direction
PVC -164.0 -128.8 -77.3 -66.6 -57.1 -52.4
concrete -287.3 -238.6 -187 -196.8 -176.8 -133.2
steel -480.5 -348.1 -267 -226.5 -181.4 -152.0

When the horizontal distance grows, the horizontal stress and the vertical stress of
the three different kinds of pipes are all decreased, the stress of the steel pipe is the
biggest, and the secondly is the concrete pipes, the stress of the PVC pipes is the
minimum (see Table 4). When the vertical distance is more than 6 meters, the stress
in the x direction of the PVC pipe and the concrete pipe are less than 100kPa, and
when the vertical distance is more than 12 meters, the stress in the x direction of the
steel pipe are less than 100kPa.This shows that the pipe is a support to the soil, the
stiffness of the pipes are directly proportional to their stress during the excavation.

The influence of the excavation procedure. This paper use two the excavation
procedure ABCD and ACBD separately, the vertical displacement contrast
of the three kinds of pipes is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. The Vertical Displacement Contrast of The Three Kinds of Pipes.
The Excavation Procedure A-B-C-D A-C-B-D
The materials of the pipes
PVC 24.2mm 26.7mm
concrete 27.9mm 30mm
steel 13.5mm 13.9mm

The excavation procedure influence the vertical displacement of the pipes to a certain
degree, when takes the excavation procedure ACBD, the vertical displacement of
the three pipes is larger than the excavation procedure ABCD (see Table 5).
When the excavation procedure changes, the stress of the pipes is shown in Table 6.

Table 6 The Stress of The Pipes.
Stress(kPa)
The materials of the
pipes
The excavation procedure
A-B-C-D A-C-B-D
The horizontal
direction
PVC -100.87 -124.62
concrete -144.23 -169.55

steel -207.4 -278.11
The vertical
direction
PVC -164.04 -238.15
concrete -287.29 -335.67
steel -480.5 -548.45

When takes the excavation procedure ACBD, the horizontal stress and the
vertical stress of the three different kinds of pipes are all larger than the excavation
procedure ABCD, so, in the practical project, we should take the ABCD
procedure to minish the displacement and stress of the pipes (see Table 6).

The influence of the cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel. The model
takes different angle between pipeline and the tunnel. The depth of pipeline is 5m.
The value of angle is separately 0, 30, 45and 90. The value of vertical
displacement with different angle is shown as Figure 8.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 20 40 60 80 100
the cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel/
t
h
e

v
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

o
f

t
h
e
p
i
p
e
l
i
n
e
/
m
m
concrete
PVC
steel

Figure 8. The vertical displacement contrast of the three kinds of pipes.

It can be seen that when pipeline is parallel to the tunnel, the displacement is
comparatively large along the whole pipe. As the angle increased from 0to 45, the
max value of vertical displacement reduces, and when the angle increased from 45to
90, the max value of vertical displacement first increases and then decreases. The
displacement is large at the middle compare to the value at two ends.
When the cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel changes, the stress of the
pipes is shown in Table 7.

Table 7. The Stress of The Pipes.
Stress(kPa)
The
materials of
the pipes
The cross angle between the pipeline and the tunnel
0 30 45 90
The
horizontal
direction

PVC -100.87 -93.22 -73.1 -95.25
concrete -144.23 -113.54 -93.19 -135.9
steel -207.4 -187.78 -142.21 -202.83
The vertical
direction
PVC -164.04 -146.6 -107.66 -126.66
concrete -287.29 -246.15 -197.75 -246
steel -480.5 -431.34 -377.75 -426.12

As the angle increased from 0to 90, the max value of vertical displacement first
increases and then decreases (see Table 7). When the tunnel is parallel to the pipeline,
the horizontal stress and the vertical stress of the three different kinds of pipes are the
largest , and the stress of the steel pipe is obvious than the other pipes, So the subway
line should be avoided to be parallel to the pipeline during the construction.

The influence of the underground water table. Consider two underground water
table, one is below the tunnel, and another is pass through the tunnel. The value of
vertical displacement with different underground water table is shown as Table 8.

Table 8. The Vertical Displacement Contrast of The Three Kinds of Pipes.
The materials of the pipes
The underground water table
-20m -10m
PVC 24.2 28.2
concrete 27.9 32.7
steel 13.5 15.3

The underground water table influence the vertical displacement of the pipes to a
certain degree, when the underground water table is pass through the tunnel, the
vertical displacement of the three pipes is obvious than below the tunnel (see Table
8). Thats because the tunnel excavation would inevitably influence the soil around
the tunnel, thus destroy the equilibrium state of the intrinsic underground water
seepage field and the stress field, so that brings about the sedimentation of the soil.
When the underground water table changes, the stress of the pipes is shown in Table
9.

Table 9. The Stress of The Pipes.
Stress(kPa)
The materials of
the pipes
The underground water table
-20m -10m
The horizontal
direction
PVC -100.87 -118.67
concrete -144.23 -157.01
steel -207.4 -238.44
The vertical
direction
PVC -164.04 -191.09
concrete -287.29 -303.18
steel -480.5 -498.43

When the underground water table is pass through the tunnel, the vertical stress and
the horizontal stress are all larger than below the tunnel (see Table 9).

CONCLUSION

From the numerical results, it can be seen that:
(1) the vertical distance and the horizontal distance between the pipeline and the
tunnel had tremendous influence to the pipes, 10 meters horizontal distance and 10
meters vertical distance to the concrete pipe should not allowed doing the
construction, which would result in grave consequences of the pipelines.
(2) the materials make the pipes have different stiffness, the stiffness of pipes have a
big influence to the displacement and the stress of the pipes, in the same situation,
the excavation has much more influence to the PVC pipes than to the steel pipes and
the concrete pipes, the steel pipes affected less by the excavation.
(3)the excavation procedure influence the vertical displacement and the stress of the
pipes to a certain degree, when takes the excavation procedure ACBD, the
vertical displacement and the stress of the three pipes is larger than the excavation
procedure ABCD.
(3) As the angle increased from 0to 45, the max value of vertical displacement
reduces, and when the angle increased from 45to 90, the max value of vertical
displacement first increases and then decreases. As the angle increased from 0to 90,
the max value of vertical displacement first increases and then decreases. When the
tunnel is parallel to the pipeline, the horizontal stress and the vertical stress of the
three different kinds of pipes are the largest , and the stress of the steel pipe is
obvious than the other pipes, So the subway line should be avoided to be parallel to
the pipeline during the construction.
(4) the underground water table influence the vertical displacement of the pipes to a
certain degree, when the underground water table is pass through the tunnel, the
vertical displacement of the three pipes is obvious than below the tunnel; when the
underground water table is pass through the tunnel, the vertical stress and the
horizontal stress are all larger than below the tunnel.

REFERENCES


Bi, J.H., Liu, W. and Jiang, Z.F. (2006). Analysis of tunnel excavation on
underground pipeline. Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering,
27(84), 1317-1321.
Klar, A.M. Marshall, K. Soga and R.J. Mair. (2008). Tunneling effects on jointed
pipelines. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 45 (1),131-239.
Li, D.Y. and Gong, X.N. (2003). Response of jointed ductile pipeline to deep
excavation in soft soil. China Civil Engineering Journal, 36(2),77-80.
Li, D.Y., Gong, X.N. and Zhang, T.Q. (2001). Numerical simulation of the buried
pipelines protection adjacent to deep excavation. Journal of Rock Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical
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