Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust

Prediction of tunnel displacement induced by adjacent excavation in soft soil

Jun-Feng Zhang, Jin-Jian Chen ⇑, Jian-Hua Wang, Yan-Fei Zhu
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Deep excavation may have impact on the adjacent tunnels. The interaction between new excavations and
Received 1 February 2011 existing tunnels has been increasingly serious with the rapid development of underground space and
Received in revised form 3 December 2012 metro system in urban area. It hence creates a high necessity to predict tunnel displacement induced
Accepted 30 January 2013
by nearby excavation to ensure the safety of tunnel. In this paper, a semi-analytical method to evaluate
Available online 6 March 2013
the heave of underlying tunnel induced by adjacent excavation is presented and verified by field mea-
surement results. The influence of excavation and the resistance of tunnel are obtained based on Bous-
Keywords:
sinesq’s and Mindlin’s solutions, respectively. Then the soil–tunnel interaction behavior is analyzed
Tunnel
Excavation
based on the displacement coupling condition by assuming the tunnel as an elastic beam. A visco-elas-
Interaction toplastic model (VEP model) is employed to simulate the rheologic deformation of soil. The behavior
Rheological of the tunnel underneath excavation is studied by the new method to discuss the influence of different
Displacement factors, including excavation area, relative distance and construction procedure. Results of case studies
Semi-analytical method show a good agreement between prediction and measurements.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction excavation close to two MRT tunnels in Singapore, which is par-

Many cities have been developing the metro system in recent
years, which is a life line of city transport in China. The safety of
metro tunnels is extremely important, while the interaction be-
tween new underground structures and existing tunnels has been
increasingly serious with the development of underground space
and metro system in urban area. The construction near the existing
tunnels, including excavation above tunnels, will cause significant
influence on the stress and the movement of tunnels. As shown in
Fig. 1, the adjacent excavation is h in depth, B in width, L in length,
and the depth of the underlying tunnel’s center is H. The relative
distance from the center of excavation to the cross-sectional center
of the tunnel is D, while the diameter of tunnel is d. The deep exca-
vation will cause movements of the surrounding soil and adjacent
tunnels (as shown in Fig. 1). The tunnel heaves because of the re-
bound of soil beneath excavation if H is larger than the excavation
depth, and the lateral displacement of the tunnel is much less than
the heave. The tunnel will move horizontally with a considerable
displacement if the tunnel is close to the pit and H is less than h.
Many projects of deep excavation adjacent to running tunnels
have been carried out in different cities. Chang et al. (2001) re-
ported an event in Taipei that a section of tunnel was damaged
by an adjacent excavation, and gave advices on excavations near
existing tunnels. Sharma et al. (2001) studied a case of large
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 34204833.
E-mail addresses: chenjj29@sjtu.edu.cn, chenjj29@hotmail.com (J.-J. Chen).
tially above the crown of tunnels. In recent years, many cases in
Shanghai have been reported by many researchers (Ji and Chen,
2001; Hu et al., 2003; Chen and Zhang, 2004; Wang and Yu,
2004), in which the impact of excavation on adjacent tunnel were
investigated by the field monitoring exercises.
With the growing number of such cases, predicting the tunnel’s
displacements has been increasingly important to reduce the risk
of excavations, especially for those above running tunnels. The dis-
placements of tunnels induced by adjacent excavation can be pre-
dicted by some approaches. Most researchers simulated the
interaction behavior between tunnels and excavation by using
numerical methods. Dolezalova (2001) analyzed the effect of a
deep open excavation for an office block above the underlying tun-
nel by 2D FEM. Sharma et al. (2001) also presented a study model-
ing the excavation by a finite element program for MRT tunnel. Hu
et al. (2003) used FEM method to analyze the displacement of
Shanghai Metro tunnel induced by the deep excavation, but their
attention is mostly paid on the design and construction of a deep
excavation. The numerical method is powerful to simulate the tun-
nel–soil interaction under complex field conditions and excavation
procedures. But a large number of hypothetic parameters have to
be defined for the numerical analysis, and it is not convenient for
engineers to predict the tunnel’s displacement quickly.
To evaluate the impact of excavation on the existing tunnel and
optimize the construction procedures, several semi-empirical or
analytical methods have been used for quick predictions. Ji and
Liu (2001) deduced a simplified and versatile method of calculating
tunnel’s movements induced by adjacent excavation, which was

0886-7798/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2013.01.011
 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33 25

B
p
Ground surface
Deep excavation
Soil x
h
movement
H

y
Tunnel
movement
x
d o
... ... T
z

D Δ Hi Layer i

... ...
Deep excavation

B/2 z

B Fig. 2. Soil stress by Boussinesq’s solution.

x
D
Tunnel
O y
L The underlying soil movement induced by excavation can be
Fig. 1. Interaction between excavation and tunnel.
called Residual Stress Method (RSM). The RSM considers the
movement of soil as the displacements of the tunnel because it
does not consider the influence of the tunnel’s stiffness. By using
the compression deformation concept, Huang et al. (2006) pro-
posed a semi-experiential formula based on the elasticity theory,
but they did not take the stiffness of tunnel into account either.
Chen and Li (2005) provided an analytical method to calculate
the tunnel displacements by assuming the tunnel as a beam on
Winkler’s foundation, but it cannot analyze the redistribution of
stress resulted by the tunnel–excavation interaction. None of the
aforementioned studies consider the rheology effects.
By considering the displacements coupling effect of the soil–
tunnel interaction and time-dependent behavior of soft soil, this
paper presents a semi-analytical method to evaluate the heave of
underlying tunnel induced by adjacent excavation. A parametric
analysis is performed to discuss the influence of various factors
on the tunnel’s displacements, and the reliability of the new meth-
od is demonstrated by comparing predictions with the field mea-
surements of engineering cases.
2. Method of analysis
Deep excavation adjacent to tunnels will break the soil stress
balance and cause the displacements of tunnel and subsoil. Such
displacements will be resisted by the stiffness of the tunnel. Even-
tually, the stresses and deformation of the tunnel and foundation
will arrive at a new balance under the interaction of tunnel and
soil.
2.1. Soil vertical displacement by excavation
The excavation is an unloading procedure for the soil, which
will release the geostress beneath the base of the excavation. The
total released load is the excavated soil gravity load. The unload
pressure on the base of excavation can be estimated as:
where p is the unloaded pressure; ci is the unit weight of excavated
soil layer i; hi is the thickness of excavated soil layer i.
predicted by using a shallow foundation displacement analysis
method by considering the load applied in the upward direction
(Fig. 2). Many methods are available for predicting the displace-
ments of shallow foundation. In this paper, the Boussinesq’s solu-
tion is employed to analyze the stresses distribution in the half-
space caused by excavation. Semi-analytical method is applied to
get the final soil stress induced by the excavation of irregular
shape. The reduced pressure at the base level of excavation can
be divided into small zones of uniform pressure. Then the distrib-
uted stress induced by the excavation can be integrated based on
the Boussinesq’s solution.
ZZ
3pz3 1
r1 ðx; y; zÞ ¼ dxdy ð2Þ
2p X ðx2 þ y2 þ z2 Þ5
where r1(x, y, z) is the distributed vertical stress at the calculated
point (x, y, z); X is the area of the excavation base.
Field measurements of deep excavation in Shanghai showed
that the surrounding soil displacement increases with the time be-
cause of the obvious time-dependent properties of Shanghai soft
clay (Liu, 1998). The time-space effect method was presented to re-
duce the displacement of soil caused by the excavation without
bracing system. But Liu et al. (2006) found that the displacement
of soil was also increasing after being braced even if there is no
more excavation. The displacement with bracing system is very
small if the exposure time is less than 15 days. When the exposure
time of the braced excavation is more than 30 days, the displace-
ment increased during exposure would be larger than that caused
by the excavation without bracing. Therefore, the time-dependent
behavior of the soft clay in Shanghai should be considered in the
deformation prediction.
The time-dependent behavior of soft clay and its constitutive
model have been widely discussed. Redman and Poulos (1984)
proposed a convenient and versatile creep model to represent
the undrained creep behavior of soil.
X
n
JðtÞ ¼ A0 þ Ai eai t ð3aÞ
i¼1

X
n Z t
p¼ c i  hi ð1Þ eðtÞ ¼ r0 JðtÞ þ JðtÞr_ ðsÞds ð3bÞ
i¼1 0
26 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33

Beam
(Tunnel)
O
x
pk(x, y, c)
R1
y R2
Point (x, y, z)

... ...

T’
Layer j

... ...

z
Fig. 3. Rheological models for soft clay.
Fig. 4. Soil stress by Mindlin’s solution of beam segment load.

where A0, Ai are coefficients of deformation, ai is the decay time

parameter, t is time, n is the number of erms in series, e(t) is the thickness of soil layer i, n is the empirical coefficient for modifica-
strain components at time t, r0 is stress components at zero time, tion. The empirical coefficient for Shanghai soft clay and the method
r_ ðtÞ is the time derivatives of stress components at time t. The predicting the influenced depth of stress increase in subsoil, which
parameters A0, Ai, and ai are stress-level dependent, and can be ob- are advised in Foundation Design Code (Shanghai Urban Construc-
tained by fitting the creep test data with a nonlinear regression tion and Communications Commission, 2010), are adopted in this
analysis. paper.
To consider the viscoelastoplastic (VEP) behavior of the soft When (r0–ri) is less than rs in Eq. (4) and the plastic deforma-
clay, some new constitutive models were presented by different tion does not appear, the soil stress–strain–time relationship fol-
researchers (Yin and Graham, 1989; Fodil et al., 1997, etc.). Based lows Merchant’s model, i.e. a three components VE model in
on the field measurements and laboratorial tests on the time- Fig. 3b. Then the creep equation can be derived as follows:
dependent behavior of soft clay in Shanghai, the creep properties, r r E2 
empirical constitutive models and parameters have been discussed e¼ þ 1  e g t ð6Þ
E1 E2
by many researchers, including Miao et al. (2008) based on Bing-
ham’s VP model, Wu et al. (2010) based on Merchant’s VE model, where E1 and E2 are Young’s modulus of the springs and g is the vis-
Tang and Lei (2011) based on the VE model, and Luo and Zeng cosity coefficient of the dashpot. By using Eq. (6), Eq. (5) can also be
(2011) based on the VEP model. For practical purpose, the VEP simplified.
model of soft clay in Shanghai can be developed by extending Bing-
ham’s Model and Kelvin’s Model (as shown in Fig. 3a), which can 2.2. Soil vertical displacement due to the resistance of tunnel
be expressed as following (Shi et al., 2008):
Chang et al. (2001) found that tunnels behave as beams, which
e ¼ Jl;e ðtÞ  ri þ Jn;e ðt; r0  ri Þ  ri þ Jn;p ðt; r0  ri  rs Þ  ðr0
can reduce the ground movement induced by adjacent geotechni-
 ri  rs Þ ð4Þ cal activities. Therefore, the tunnel is assumed as an elastic beam in
this study. The beam model is divided into a number of rectangular
where Jl,e(t) is the elastic flexibility coefficient, Jn,e(t) is the nonlinear
segments along the longitudinal direction. The resistance of tunnel
rheological flexibility coefficient, Jn,p(t) is the creep flexibility coeffi-
to the soil movement, which can be assumed as a beam load on the
cient, r0 is the original soil stress, ri is the unloaded soil stress, rs is
soil, pk, is uniform within each segment (Fig. 4). Such beam load
the soil stress strength. Xu and Tan (2006) and Fu et al. (2007) have
will induce displacements of surrounding soil, which can be ana-
provided methods to determine the spring constants and the viscos-
lyzed by Mindlin’s solution. The stress of point (x, y, z) induced
ity coefficients in the VEP model of Shanghai clay.
by beam segment k, can be estimated as:
By using Eq. (4), the prediction of soil deformation is only valid
for soft clays with time-dependent properties, such as Shanghai ZZ "
pk ð1  2mÞðz  cÞ 3ðz  cÞ3
soft clay. For non-viscous and over-consolidated clays, the predic- rz ðkÞ ¼  
tion of the effective stress paths and ground movements around aðkÞ 8pð1  mÞ R31 R51
the excavation strongly depends on the adopted constitutive mod- ð1  2mÞðz  cÞ 3ð3  4mÞzðz þ cÞ2  3cðz þ cÞð5z  cÞ
el (Bilotta and Stallebrass, 2009). Therefore, the appropriate consti- þ 
R32 R52
tutive model and parameters of soil should be employed when it is #
applied in different areas. 30czðz þ cÞ3
 dxdy ð7Þ
By substituting Eq. (4) to Eq. (2), the displacement of point A in R72
subsoil can be obtained as:
Z where pk is the uniform pressure on the beam segment k; a(k) is the
X
n
x1 ðx; y; zÞ ¼ ei dz ¼ n ½Jl;e ðtÞ  ri þ Jn;e ðt; r0  ri Þ  ri area of one segment k; C is the beam depth below the ground sur-
L i¼1 face; m is the Poisson’s ratio of the subsoil; R1 is the distance be-
þ J n;p ðt; r0  ri  rs Þ  ðr0  ri  rs ÞDHi ð5Þ tween the calculated soil point and the beam segment; R2 is the
distance between the calculated soil point and origin.
where L is the influenced region of layered soils beneath point A, n Then the stress induced by all segments of the beam at soil
is the number of soil layers within influenced region, DHi is the point (x, y, z) can be expressed as:
 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33 27

From Eq. (12), the beam displacement vector can be expressed

as:

s ¼ ½dF ð13Þ

where [d] is the flexibility matrix of beam elements.

Fig. 5. Beam displacement.

2.4. Coupling analysis

"
n ZZ
X Considering the interaction behavior, the soil displacement
pk ð1  2mÞðz  cÞ 3ðz  cÞ3
rz ¼   should be coupled with that of the tunnel beam. The soil displace-
k¼1 aðkÞ 8pð1  mÞ R31 R51 ment vector induced by excavation can be derived from Eq. (5):
ð1  2mÞðz  cÞ 3ð3  4mÞzðz þ cÞ2  3cðz þ cÞð5z  cÞ
þ  x1 ¼ f x1ð1Þ . . . x1ðiÞ . . . x1ðnÞ gT ð14Þ
R32 R52
#
30czðz þ cÞ3 where x1ðiÞ is the soil displacement at the middle of beam element i.
 dxdy ð8Þ The soil displacement vector induced by beam surface pressure
R72
can be derived from Eq. (9):
where n is the number of the beam segments.
The rheological model is also employed to simulate soil creep
x2 ¼ f x2ð1Þ . . . x2ðiÞ . . . x2ðnÞ gT ð15Þ
properties. Substituting Eq. (4), the displacement of point A in sub-
where x2ðiÞ is the soil displacement at the middle of beam element i.
soil can be expressed as:
Then the coupling equation can be shown as:
Z X
m
x2 ðx; y; zÞ ¼ ej dz ¼ f ½J l;e ðtÞ:rz;j þ J n;e ðt; r0  rz;j Þ:rz;j s ¼ x1  x2 ð16Þ
T j¼1
By solving Eq. (16) derived from Eqs. (5), (9), and (13), the tun-
þ J n;p ðt; r0  rz;j  rs Þ:ðr0  rz;j  rs ÞDHj ð9Þ nel vertical displacements of every segment can be obtained.
By using this method, the heave displacement of tunnel caused
where T is the region of influenced soil layer; m is the number of soil
by the above excavation can be predicted. The geological proper-
layers within influenced region, DHj is the thickness of soil layer j,
ties of different subsoil can be simulated in this method by
rz,j is the stress of soil layer j induced by beam pressure; f is the
employing different constitutive model in Eqs. (5) and (9), includ-
empirical coefficient to modify calculated soil displacement.
ing viscosity, nonlinear elasticity and plasticity. This method can
be used in quick assessment of different excavation plan.
2.3. Analogy model of the tunnel

The displacement of the tunnel induced by soil pressure can be 35

analyzed by continuous beam model. The soil pressure is the trans- L=5d, D=0
verse load which the beam acts on the soil (Fig. 5). The pressure on 30 B=1d
B=3d
tunnel displacement (mm)

a beam is the result of the interaction between the beam and the B=5d
25
soil. B=7d
The length of the beam is sufficiently large, and the ends of the 20 B=9d
B=11d
beam will not be influenced by the excavation. Three boundary B=13d
conditions can be expressed as: 15 B=15d
8
< N0 ¼ N1 ¼ 0
> 10
Q0 ¼ Q1 ¼ 0 ð10Þ 5
>
:
M0 ¼ M1 ¼ 0
0 Excavation
The finite element method is adopted to get the displacement of
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
the beam. The stiffness matrix of a bending beam element can be x/d
expressed as:
2 12EI
3 45
l 3 symm:
6 6EI 7 B=5d, D=0
6 2 4EI 7 40 L=1d
ðeÞ 6 l 7
½K ¼ 6 l12EI 7 ð11Þ L=3d
tunnel displacement (mm)

35
6  3  6EI 12EI 7 L=5d
4 l l2 l3 5
6EI 2EI
30 L=7d
l2 l
 6EI
l2
4EI
l L=9d
25 L=11d
where l is the length of a beam element along the beam axis, EI is L=13d
20
L=15d
the beam flexural rigidity. Lin (2001) provided a method to calcu-
15
late the beam flexural rigidity, EI, for the shield tunnel.
The global stiffness matrix of the tunnel can be obtained from 10
Eq. (11), and the equilibrium equation is as follows: 5

½Ks ¼ F ð12Þ 0
-15 -12 -9 -6 -3 0 3 6 9 12 15
where [K] is the global stiffness matrix, s = {s1, ... , si,... , sn}T is the vec-
x/d
tor of displacement of beam elements; F = {p1, ... ,pi, ... ,pn}T, is the
load vector of beam elements between the beam and the soil. Fig. 6. Variation of tunnel heave distribution with the excavation area.
28
3. Parametric analysis
The displacement of tunnel underneath excavation can be pre-
dicted by the presented method to examine the influence of differ-
ent factors, including the excavation area, relative distance and
construction procedure. Since the viscosity behavior of Shanghai
clay is stronger than the plastic behavior, especially under the
unloading condition, the Merchant’ model is usually adopted in
time-dependant analysis (Wu et al., 2010). In this section, the mer-
chant’ model of Eq. (6) is adopted by assuming that (r0–ri) is less
than rs in Eq. (4). According to the rheology properties of soft clay
in Shanghai (Chen, 2003; Fu et al., 2007; Wu et al., 2010), following
parameters are adopted in this section: the soil nature unit weight
is 20 kN/m3; E1 is 50 MPa and E2 is 1.2 MPa respectively; g is
40 kPa day; the natural water depth is 1 m under the ground sur-
face. The depth of shield tunnel’s central is 16 m and the tunnel’s
diameter is 6.2 m. The beam flexural rigidity, EI, of the shield tun-
nel is 69,000 MN m2 (Lin, 2001). The length of the tunnel is taken
up to 120 m, outside which the tunnel displacement is negligibly
small. In order to achieve sufficient precision, the tunnel is divided
into 120 segments.
3.1. Influence of the excavation area
The base of the excavation is 8 m beneath the ground surface
and the relative distance from the center of excavation to the tun-
nel’s center, D, is 0. Fig. 6 shows the variation of tunnel heave dis-
tribution with different excavation area, including the variation of
B and L. Fig. 6 shows that both the tunnel displacement and the
influence region of excavation increase with the increasing of exca-
vation area. But the increase will be less when the value of B or L is
large enough.
The excavation area is AE = LB, and the overlapping area of tun-
nel under excavation is AT = Ld. If the area ratio is defined as R = AE/
AT = B/d, the relationship between the maximum displacement of
tunnel and the area ratio, R, can be obtained and presented in
Fig. 7 based on Fig. 6. In Fig. 7, another curve is obtained by assum-
ing that the excavation pit is square. Fig. 7 shows that the tunnel
displacement increases in a nonlinear manner with the increasing
of R. At the first section of the curve, the tunnel displacement in-
creases rapidly with the increasing of R. After the value of R reaches
10, which means the excavation area is very large, the tunnel’s dis-
placement increases slowly. At that point, the peak displacement
of tunnel almost reaches the maximum value for a rectangular
excavation. However, the tunnel’s displacement reaches the ex-
treme value when R equals 15 for the square excavation because
of the interaction influence of length and width. Fig. 7 also shows
55
50 D=0
Max displacement of tunnel (mm)
45 L=5d
B=5d
40
L=B
35
30
25
20
15
10
5 3.3. Influence of excavation procedures
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
R=AE /AT
Fig. 7. Variation of maximum tunnel heave with the ratio R.
J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33
2.0
1.8
Y=1.931/(1+e
(X-0.096)/1.779
)
1.6
1.4
Y=di(x)/di(x=0.5B)
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
X=(x-0.5B)/d
Fig. 8. Variation of relative displacement with relative location.
that the impact of the excavation’s width is much larger than that
of length.
Fig. 8 shows that range of tunnel’s displacement induced by the
excavation increases with the increasing of excavation area. By
defining the relative location as X = (x  0.5B)/d, and the normal-
ized displacement as Y = displacement (x)/displacement (0.5B), the
normalized distribution of tunnel’s displacement can be obtained
as shown in Fig. 8. The normalized displacement Y at the edge of
excavation is 1. Fig. 8 shows that the influence range out of exca-
vation area is about five times of tunnel’s diameter, which means
that there is almost no impact on the tunnel when the tunnel is lo-
cated at the 5d distance out of the excavation zone. When the tun-
nel is located at the center of excavation and the width of
excavation is more than 10d (0.5B = 5d), the displacement of tunnel
reaches extreme value which is almost twice than that of the tun-
nel located at the edge of excavation.
3.2. Influence of the relative distance
The excavation is assumed to be square and the area ratio is 1, 4,
7 and 9. The base of the excavation is 8 m beneath the ground sur-
face. The depth of tunnel’s central axis is 14 m, 16 m, 19 m and
24 m. When the quadrate excavation moves away from the tunnel
axis in the direction perpendicular to the tunnel, the relative dis-
tance from excavation center to tunnel axis is increased from 0
to 12d. Fig. 9 gives the variation of maximum displacement of tun-
nel with the increasing of normalized relative distance, D/d.
The maximum displacement of tunnel reduces when the tunnel
moves further away from the excavation. The tunnel displacement
is about 30 mm at the depth of 24 m while it is 46 mm at the depth
of 14 m. The tunnel displacement decreases with the increase of D.
The displacement (R = 9, H = 14) is 46 mm when D = 0, while the
displacement (R = 9, H = 14) is only 3 mm when D = 12d. The max-
imum displacement of tunnel at D = 0 is about twice that at
D = 0.5B, which has also been displayed from Fig. 8. Fig. 9 shows
that the displacement at D = 0.5B + 5d is almost zero which means
there is no influence of excavation. This agrees with the observa-
tion from Fig. 8.
12 14 16 18 20 The excavation is assumed to be square and its edge length
(B = L) is 43.4 m. The excavation is 9 m deep with one level of strut.
The conventional construction procedure includes two the main
steps: (1) excavating soil and installing the first strut at a shallow
 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33 29

50 45

Max displacement of tunnel (mm)

Max displacement of tunnel (mm)
H=14m 40
40 L=B=d H=16m
L=B=4d
35
L=B=d
L=B=7d 30 L=B=4d
L=B=9d
30 L=B=7d
25 L=B=9d
20
20
15

10 10
5
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
D/d D/d

40 35

Max displacement of tunnel (mm)

Max displacement of tunnel (mm)

35 H=19m 30
L=B=d H=24m
30 L=B=4d L=B=d
25 L=B=4d
L=B=7d
25 L=B=9d L=B=7d
20 L=B=9d
20
15
15
10
10

5 5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
D/d D/d

Fig. 9. Variation of tunnel displacement with relative distance.

Down line Up line

Deep excavation N

B/2 x New Highway

Tunnel (CCM)
Tunnel
O y
9.65m X25
1
2 3
B/2 Strip1 Strip2 Strip3 68m 4 5 6 9
X24 7 8

S25
L X23 S24
S23

Fig. 10. Diagram of the steps of excavation. Monitoring point

1~9: Excavation Segments No .
45 Tunnels of
step1: Strip 1 Excavation Area
40 step2: Strip 2 Metro Line 2
step3: Strip 3
Tunnel displacement (mm)

35 excavation in one step Fig. 12. Layout of the excavation above Metro Line 2.

30
tic of the soft soils: divided the excavation area into three sections
25
as shown in Fig. 10; these sections are excavated and cast with
20 concrete one by one; and it will take 20 days to finish each section.
15 Fig. 11 shows the comparison the displacement of tunnel for
these two construction procedures. The maximum displacement
10
of tunnel induced by this new procedure is about 26 mm, while
5 that of the conventional procedure is about 40 mm. The divided
0 excavation procedure can decrease the displacement effectively.
-12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
y (m) 4. Application for an engineering case of tunnel-excavation
Fig. 11. Tunnel displacements with different excavation procedure. interaction

depth; (2) excavating to the bottom and construct the concrete 4.1. Background of the project
plate. It is assumed to take about 60 days to finish the excavation.
To reduce the heave of the underlying tunnel, a new construction The Pudong section of the East–West Rapid Transport Channel
procedure is presented by considering the rheological characteris- is an underground highway in Shanghai. Cut-and-cover method
30 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33

0.0 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

No. 1 Fillled soil 1.8
Ex
Seg 1
No. 3 Silty clay C&R
Yincheng Right-turn Road Tunnel 9.0
Ex
Seg 2
No. 4 Very soft silty clay C&R
Ex
Downline Upline 17.0 Seg 3
C&R
No. 5-1 Clay Shanghai Metro Line 2 Ex
24.0 Seg 4
C&R
No. 6 Hard clay 30.0 Ex
Seg 5
C&R
No. 7-1 Sandy silt 35.0 Ex
Seg 6
C&R
No. 7-2 Fine sand Ex
Seg 7
C&R
Pause
Fig. 13. Profile of the excavation above tunnel. Ex
Seg 8
C&R
Ex
Seg 9
(CCM) is applied in construction of the highway tunnel. The Yinch- C&R
Feb.11 Feb.19 Feb.26 Mar.6 Mar.15 Mar.24
eng right-turn ramp of the channel crosses over two running tun-
nels of Metro Line 2 in Lujiazui financial district where there are Fig. 14. Construction sequence of segment excavation.
lots of skyscrapers and infrastructures. The excavation of the
right-turn ramp is 9.65 m wide and 7.3 m deep, and the crossing
length over Metro Line 2 is about 68 m (Fig. 12). The unloading ra- by some cement–soil mixing wall interposed by H-section steels
tio above existing metro tunnel is about 0.77 since the clearance (Fig. 12); (3) the reinforced concrete beam with section of
between the excavation and the existing tunnels’ crown is only 800 mm  1000 mm joints the H-section steels together so that
about 2.2 m. Shanghai Metro Line 2 is composed of two directional the cement–soil columns can act as retaining walls for the small
tunnels which are Up Line and Down Line, respectively. The shield segment excavations; (4) for each small segment excavation, the
tunnels’ external diameter is 6.2 m and the thickness of the rein- concrete structure of the ramp tunnel, including slab, inner wall,
forced concrete structure is 0.35 m. and roof, will be constructed immediately after excavation fin-
The subsoil in the construction field is mainly soft soil compris- ished. A complex excavation procedure is carried out due to the
ing Quaternary alluvial and marine deposits. In general, the soil constraints of space, equipments, and displacement contractual
layer surrounding the Metro tunnels and near the excavation sur- limitations, which is shows in Fig. 14.
face is very soft silty clay. The soil layer profile is shown in Fig. 13.
The ground water level is about 0.8 m below the ground surface.
The engineering properties of the soil layers in-site are given in Ta- 4.3. Prediction and comparison
ble 1. The empirical parameters of rheological model in Table 1 are
obtained based on field test results and empirical relations (Chen, The tunnel’s vertical displacement is predicted by the presented
2003; Fu et al., 2007; Wu et al., 2010). method prior excavation. In the prediction, the right-turn ramp
Two automatic monitoring systems are installed in the tunnels excavation above Metro Line 2 is divided into five stages according
to monitor the displacements. There are 45 monitor points (S1–45 to the construction procedure as shown in Fig. 14. In order to dis-
and X1–45) in each system as being shown in Fig. 12. An extensive cuss the maximum displacement of Metro Line 2, three monitoring
field monitoring program is carried out during the excavation. The points of each tunnel near the center of excavation are selected for
automatic results are also checked with the results of manual sur- comparison in Fig. 15. The locations of these points (S23–25 and
veying to make sure that the automatic system is performing X23–25) are shown in Fig. 12. The tunnel’s displacements increase
satisfactorily. in the excavation stage, and reduce in concreting stage because of
the reloading of structure’s weight. The tunnel displacement is also
affected by the adjacent segment excavation and reloading.
4.2. Excavation construction procedure When all segments are excavated, the tunnel displacement
reached the peak value. The maximum displacement of Up Line
To reduce the tunnel’s displacement within allowable value, a is 6.1 mm while that of Down Line is 5.5 mm. Fig. 16 can be ob-
rational construction method is adopted by considering the effect tained by comparing all the predicted values in Fig. 15 with the
of time and space: (1) modified deep mixing method (Chen et al., measured value. Both Figs. 15 and 16 show that the predicted val-
2013) is applied to improve the soil surrounding the Metro tun- ues fit well with the measured values. The predicted values of the
nels; (2) the ramp excavation area is divided into 9 small segments tunnel’s displacement is little larger than the measured values.

Table 1
Engineering properties of the soil layers.

Soil layer no. Thickness (m) Test value Empirical value

w (%) c (kN/m3) e a1–2 (MPa1) m g (kPa day) E1 (MPa) E2 (MPa)
1 0.8–4.0 0.4 4 6 1.2
3 4.5–7.7 34.7 18.2 1.13 0.59 0.4 7 12 2.8
4 5.2–8.6 48.6 16.9 1.37 1.03 0.4 4 9 1.6
5-1 4.0–5.8 34.2 18.2 0.98 0.48 0.35 19 36 3.9
6 4.6–5.2 22.5 19.9 0.68 0.25 0.35 16 33 3.6
7-1 5.3–7.4 29.9 18.7 0.84 0.17 0.33 50 105 12.2
7-2 >10 27.0 19.0 0.76 0.13 0.3 85 150 19.3
 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33 31

8
Upline Tunnel Displacement (mm)

7 S23 Measured
S23 Predicted
6 S24 Measured
S24 Predicted
5 S25 Measured
S25 Predicted
4

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stage of excavation

8
Downline Tunnel Displacement (mm)

X23 Measured
7 X23 Predicted
X24 Measured
6 Fig. 17. Layout of segmented excavations and predicted tunnel’s displacement
X24 Predicted
X25 Measured (Case 1).
5
X25 Predicted
4
20
3
Up Line Measured (Ji and Chen,2001)
2 Up Line Predicted

Tunnel Displacement (mm)

16 Down Line Measured (Ji and Chen,2001)
Down Line Predicted
1

0 12
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stage of excavation
8
Fig. 15. Development of the tunnel’s displacement.

4
7

0
6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Stage of excavation
Predicted value (mm)

5
Fig. 18. Development of the tunnel’s displacement (Case 1).
4

3 construction techniques were employed to reduce the soil defor-

mation and tunnel displacement. The excavation was divided into
2 12 segments as shown in Fig. 17. The numbers in Fig. 17 shows the
excavation order of the segments, and the segments No. 3 and No.
1 4 are excavated at the same time so that there are only 11 stages of
construction.
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The displacement of the underlying tunnel during excavation is
Measured value (mm) predicted by the presented semi-analytical method, and the distri-
butions of the tunnel heave are given in Fig. 17. The predicted dis-
Fig. 16. Comparison of the tunnel’s displacement.
placements of the tunnels at the center of excavation are compared
with the measured values in Fig. 18. The maximum value of the
Therefore, the presented method in this paper can predict the dis- predicted tunnel heave is 14.6 mm, which is very close to the mea-
placement of underlying tunnel induced by excavation with a sured value (i.e., 13 mm).
safety factor.
5.2. Case 2 in literature
5. Application for other cases in literatures
The underpass of Dongfang Road was also constructed by the
5.1. Case 1 in literature cut-and-cover method, and also over crossed Metro Line 2 in
Shanghai (Chen and Zhang, 2004; Wang and Yu, 2004). The excava-
Ji and Chen (2001) reported the cut-and-cover excavation of an tion was 6.6 m in depth, 18.1 m in width and 54 in length. The
underpass at the cross of Yanggao Road and Century Avenue in clearance between excavation and tunnel is about 2.8 m. According
Shanghai, which is over crossing Metro Line 2. The excavation to experiences in the construction of Yanggao Road underpass (Ji
was 7.4 m in depth, 32.5 m in width and 33.5 in length. The depth and Chen, 2001) and considering the higher unloading ratio above
of tunnel center was 17.4 m beneath ground surface, which means tunnels, the excavation of the underpass was divided into two
the clearance between excavation bottom and tunnel crown is parts and each part was excavated layer by layer. The thickness
about 7 m. In order to protect the shield tunnels, a series of of the first layer was about 3 m, and the second layer of each part
32 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33
Fig. 19. Layout of segmented excavations and predicted tunnel’s displacement
(Case 2).
18
Up Line Measured (Wang and Yu,2004)
Up Line Predicted
15
Tunnel Displacement (mm)
Down Line Measured (Wang and Yu,2004)
Down Line Predicted
12
6
3
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Stage of excavation
Fig. 20. Development of the tunnel’s displacement (Case 2).
was divided into five segments as shown in Fig. 19. Fig. 19 also
gives the construction order of the segments of second excavation
layer, and the construction stage No. 1 and No. 7 are the first layer
excavations of two parts.
The predicted displacements of the tunnels by this presented
semi-analytical method are obtained and compared with the mea-
surements as shown in Fig. 20. The predicted maximum value of
the tunnel displacement is 13.7 mm, while the measured value is
12.3 mm. The presented method can predict the displacement of
underlying tunnel caused by adjacent excavations in a convenient
and accurate way.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, a semi-analytical method to evaluate the heave of
underlying tunnel induced by adjacent excavations is presented
and verifies by field measurements.
(1) The soil stresses and displacement induced by the excava-
tion is obtained based on Boussines’s solution, while the
resistance of the tunnel is analyzed by application of Mind-
lin’s solution. The existing tunnel beneath the excavation is
assumed as an elastic beam. The soil–tunnel interaction
behavior is solved by considering the displacement coupling
between the tunnel and surrounding soils. This practical
method can predict the displacement of tunnel quickly and
can be adopted in the pro-assessment and optimization of
construction plans.
(2) Heave displacement of the tunnel adjacent to an excavation
is studied to discuss the influence of different factors, includ-
ing excavation area, relative distance and construction
procedure. The displacement of the underlying tunnel
increases with the increasing of the area ratio (R) and
become convergent after R reaches 10. The tunnel displace-
ment decreases rapidly with increasing of relative distance
(D) or (H–h), and there is almost no impact when the dis-
tance from tunnel to the edge of excavation is more than
5d. Divided excavation will reduce the displacement of
underlying tunnel because of the space effects and time
effects.
(3) Cases of the deep excavation above running metro tunnels
are studied by the presented method, and compared with
the field measurements. Results show a good agreement
between the prediction of the tunnel’s displacement and
the measurements.
The presented method is effective for quick assessment of the
tunnel’s heave displacement during adjacent excavation, but more
accurate prediction can be obtained by numerical analysis. It
should also be clarified that this method is valid for soft clays with
time-dependent properties and when the tunnel is located below
the excavation bottom. The appropriate constitutive model and
parameters of soil should be employed when it is applied in differ-
ent areas.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (No. 41002095) and the Science and Technology Commis-
sion of Shanghai Municipality (No. 072112009).
10 11 12
References
Bilotta, E., Stallebrass, S.E., 2009. Prediction of stresses and strains around model
tunnels with adjacent embedded walls in overconsolidated clay. Computers and
Geotechnics 36 (6), 1049–1057.
Chang, C.T., Sun, C.W., Duann, S.W., Hwang, R.N., 2001. Response of a Taipei rapid
transit system (TRTS) tunnel to adjacent excavation. Tunnelling and
Underground Space Technology 16 (3), 151–158.
Chen, J.J., 2003. Interaction Between Super-structure and Foundation Considering
Consolidation and Rheology of Soil. The Dissertation for the Degree of Master,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai (in Chinese).
Chen, Y., Li, Y.S., 2005. Calculation of tunnel heaving due to unloading of pit
excavation. Chinese Journal of Underground Space and Engineering 1 (1), 91–94
(in Chinese).
Chen, Y., Zhang, D.M., 2004. Analysis of monitoring data on tunnel heaving due to
unloading of foundation pit excavation. Underground Space 24 (5), 748–751 (in
Chinese).
Chen, J.J., Zhang, L., Zhang, J.F., Zhu, Y.F., Wang, J.H., 2013. Field tests, modification
and application of deep soil mixing method in soft clay. Journal of Geotechnical
and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE 139 (1), 24–34. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000746.
Dolezalova, M., 2001. Tunnel complex unloaded by a deep excavation. Computers
and Geotechnics 28 (6), 469–493.
Fodil, A., Aloulou, W., Hicher, P.Y., 1997. Viscoplastic behaviour of soft clay.
Geotechnique 47 (3), 581–591.
Fu, Y.B., Zhu, H.H., Wang, T.H., 2007. Method for determining rheological model of
soft soil based on LS solution of over-determined linear equations. Chinese
Journal of Underground Space and Engineering 3 (3), 439–443 (in Chinese).
Hu, Z.F., Yue, Z.Q., Zhou, J., Tham, L.G., 2003. Design and construction of a deep
excavation in soft soils adjacent to the Shanghai Metro tunnels. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal 40 (5), 933–948.
Huang, A.J., Wang, D.Y., Wang, Z.X., 2006. Rebound effects of running tunnels
underneath an excavation. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 21
(3), 399.
Ji, M.J., Chen, D.F., 2001. Control of foundation pit construction causing tunnel
displacement. China Municipal Engineering 2, 36–39 (in Chinese).
Ji, M.J., Liu, G.B., 2001. Prediction method of displacement of subway tunnel due to
excavation. Journal of Tongji University 29 (5), 531–535 (in Chinese).
Lin Y.G., 2001. A Study on the Characteristics of the Longitudinal Displacement and
the Structural Property of Shield Tunnel. The Dissertation for the Degree of
Ph.D., Tongji University, Shanghai (in Chinese).
Liu, J.H., 1998. Theory and Practice of Time-space Effect in Deep Excavation
Engineering. Research Report of Shanghai Metro Company. Shanghai, 1998, pp.
15–22 (in Chinese).
 J.-F. Zhang et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 36 (2013) 24–33
Liu, T., Yang, G.W., Liu, G.B., 2006. Researches on bracing displacement of deep pits
in Shanghai soft soil region. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 28 (S),
1842–1844 (in Chinese).
Luo, Z.J., Zeng, F., 2011. Finite element numerical simulation of land subsidence and
groundwater exploitation based on visco-elasticplastic Biot’s consolidation
theory. Journal of Hydrodynamics 23 (5), 615–624.
Miao, L., Zhang, J., Wang, F., Houston, S.L., 2008. Time-dependent deformation
behavior of Jiangsu marine clay. Marine Georesources and Geotechnology 26
(2), 86–100.
Redman, P.G., Poulos, H.G., 1984. Study of two field cases involving undrained creep.
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering – ASCE 110 (9), 1307–1321.
Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission, 2010. Shanghai
Standard Codes-Foundation Design Code (DGJ08-11-2010), Shanghai (in
Chinese).
Sharma, J.S., Hefny, A.M., Zhao, J., Chan, C.W., 2001. Effect of large excavation on
displacement of adjacent MRT tunnels. Tunnelling and Underground Space
Technology 16 (2), 93–98.
33
Shi, X.Q., Wu, J.C., Xue, Y.Q., et al., 2008. Regional land subsidence simulation in Su-
Xi-Chang area and Shanghai City, China. Engineering Geology 100 (1-2), 27–42.
Tang, B., Lei, J., 2011. Study on model of coupled behavior of consolidation and creep
for soil. In: Jiang et al. (Eds.), Geomechanics and Geotechnics. Taylor & Francis
Group, London, pp. 265–272.
Wang, R.L., Yu, B., 2004. Protecting of the metro tunnel during construction of
Dongfang Rd underpass. Underground Engineering and Tunnels 4, 33–39 (in
Chinese).
Wu, J., Shi, X., Ye, S., et al., 2010. Numerical simulation of viscoelastoplastic land
subsidence due to groundwater overdrafting in Shanghai, China. Journal of
Hydrologic Engineering 15 (3), 223–236.
Xu, H.F., Tan, H.H., 2006. A polynomial regressive inverse method to determine
rheological parameters of soft soil. In: Soil and Rock Behavior and Modeling –
Proceedings of the GeoShanghai Conference, ASCE, Geotechnical Special
Publication, No. 150, pp. 304–311.
Yin, J.H., Graham, J., 1989. Viscous–elastic–plastic modelling of one-dimensional
time-dependent behaviour of clays. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 26 (2), 199–
209.