Numerical Analysis of Three Adjacent

Horseshoe Galleries Subjected to Seismic Load

Sid Ali Rafa ✉ , Allaoua Bouaicha, Idriss Rouaz, and Taous Kamel
( )

National Centre for Studies and Integrated Researches of Building “CNERIB”,

Cité Nouvelle El Mokrani Souidania, Algiers, Algeria
rafa.sidali@gmail.com

Abstract. Tunnels are widely constructed all over the world. They help to solve
many infrastructures problems especially in large cities. However, their construc‐
tion is a great challenge for engineers and constructers since they have to deal
with a lot of uncertainties, such as, soil starts, water table, adjacent structures and
earthquakes. In order to resist to seismic effect, engineers developed many calcu‐
lation methods to design a tunnel under the effect of seismic load. Unfortunately,
these methods are limited to specific shapes of tunnel sections’ and do not take
into account the interaction that occurs between the tunnel and the soil during an
earthquake. To check the stability of three adjacent horseshoe galleries subjected
to lateral seismic loads. A numerical model using the finite element method soft‐
ware PLAXIS 3D is developed where the soil and the galleries were modeled by
mean of plan deformation. The soil behavior was modelled with Mohr-Coulomb
model while three behavior models were used to model the structure of the
galleries, namely, linear elastic model, Mohr-Coulomb model (MC) and Shot‐
crete Model (SCM). The results of these analysis show that the behavior model
of concrete has an important effect on tunnel’s response to seismic load.

Keywords: Tunnel · Seismic loads · PLAXIS 3D · Shotcrete Model

1 Introduction

During the last decades, Algeria has constructed many tunnels in the north of the country,
which are either parts of the east-west highway project or Algiers subway. Since Algeria
is considered as high seismic area, the regulation codes impose to engineers the consid‐
eration of the seismic effect in their design. Several methods can be used to design a
tunnel under seismic loads such as Forced-Based Methods and Displacement-Based
Methods. However, these two methods were developed only for circular or rectangular
tunnels and cannot be used for other shapes like a horseshoe gallery. To analyze these
types of galleries, Pitilakis et al. [1] recommended the use of numerical methods based
either on finite element method or finite difference method. In this article, the transversal
behavior of three adjacent horseshoe galleries dug into sandstone formation was
analyzed under the effect of lateral seismic loads using the finite element method imple‐
mented in the finite element software PLAXIS 3D.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

W. Wu and H.-S. Yu (Eds.): Proceedings of China-Europe Conference
on Geotechnical Engineering, SSGG, pp. 402–404, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97112-4_90
 Numerical Analysis of Three Adjacent Horseshoe Galleries 403

2 Numerical Analysis

2.1 Numerical Model

Commonly, when a FE model is used, the structure is modelled with beam elements and
the surrounding soil with plane strain elements. Nevertheless, more sophisticated models
can also be adopted where the structure and the surrounding soil are modelled with plane
strain elements.
In order to simulate these three adjacent horseshoes, a developed model was used
where the structure of the galleries and the surrounding soil were modelled with plane
strain elements (Fig. 1). The soil behavior was modelled with Mohr coulomb model
while three behavior models were used to model the structure of the galleries, namely,
linear elastic model, Mohr-Coulomb model (MC) and Shotcrete Model (SCM) that was
initially developed for shotcrete concrete [2] and extended for reinforced concrete [3].

Fig. 1. Numerical model of the galleries

2.2 Seismic Loads

In order to analyze the behavior of these galleries and rule about their stability. Six recorded
accelerograms during the major earthquake of Boumerdes City in 2003 are calibrated to a
return period of 1000 years, which lead to a peak ground acceleration “PGA” of 0.63 g. The
choice of these accelerograms is by the fact that they are local, and their frequency content
contains the fundamental frequencies of the soil. Table 1 gives the predominant frequency
of each accelerograms calculated after AFPS method [4].

Table 1. Predominant frequency of accelerograms.

Accelerograms Fréquence prédominante des mouvements
sismiques [Hz]
AFPS method
Kouba E-W 12.22
Keddara E-W 11.67
Boumerdes E-W 14.33
Hussein Dey E-W 8.89
Re 1 8.08
Re 2 6.42
404 S. A. Rafa et al.

3 Results and Discussion

The numerical analysis results show that when the galleries’ structure is modelled with
a linear elastic model, a low plastic zone appear around the galleries. However, when
the galleries’ structure is modelled with MC model and SCM model the plastic zone is
much important than the former model. Moreover, the linear elastic model shows no
failure in the galleries’ structure while the MC model shows a little failure of the concrete
mainly in the junction between the raft and the wall of the galleries’ structure, whereas
the SCM model shows that many parts of the galleries’ structure failed, namely, the
junction between the raft and the wall, the wall and the vault. These results match with
the findings by Asakura et al. [5], who numerically studied the effect of an earthquake
on mountain tunnels.

References

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Brinkgreve, R.B.J., Rohe, A. (eds.) Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering, pp. 103–
108 (2014)
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laterally loaded reinforced concrete structures in the subsurface. MSc thesis, Faculty of Civil
Engineering and Geosciences Section Geo-Engineering, Delft University (2016)
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