Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Empirical Basis for the Design of Tunnel Linings in Swelling Rock

containing Anhydrite
K. Kovári
Consulting Engineer, Zurich, Switzerland
M. Vogelhuber
Dr. von Moos AG, Zurich, Switzerland

ABSTRACT: Due to the great complexity of swelling processes in rock containing anhydrite, fre-
quently encountered highly variable geological conditions and the changeable hydraulic conditions, a
theoretically based estimate of swelling pressure is not possible. As an orientation up till now the
results of laboratory swelling tests were frequently used. These, however, can lead to unrealistically
high swelling pressures. The aim of this paper is to determine numerically the possible design values
of swelling pressures for five tunnels that have existed for a relatively long time and to use the data
as the basis for determining the swelling pressures acting on new tunnel structures.

1 INTRODUCTION The differences in bottom heave along the

tunnel that can be caused by this process lead,
Rocks containing clay minerals and anhydrite among other things, to the typical diagonal
increase in volume when they come into contact cracks in the tunnel lining, which may also ne-
with water. This phenomenon is referred to as cessitate repairs (Amstad and Kovári, 2001).
the swelling of these rocks. In tunnel construc-
tion, the swelling of rocks manifests itself as a
heave of the tunnel floor, or as a pressure on the
invert arch (Fig. 1).
In Fig. 2 the large free swelling capacity of a
rock containing anhydrite is illustrated. In the
heading of a road tunnel over a period of only a
few months the floor developed a heave of up to
1.2 m. In some cases, the pressure resulting
from the swelling of the surrounding rock leads
to the failure of the invert. In Fig. 3 the case of a
failed invert is shown. It occurred already be- Figure 1. Heave of bottom and swelling pressure acting
fore completion of the tunnel. on the invert
When the lining remains intact, a heave of
the entire opening can occur, whereby the floor In the regions of the Swiss Jura and Southern
as well as the crown experiences upward dis- Germany, the Gipskeuper formation (Gypsum
placements. A particular situation is common in Keuper) frequently occurs containing anhydrite
the case of shallow tunnels where the rock be- that is prone to the swelling phenomena. Over
neath the invert exhibits high swelling potential the years a number of tunnels have had to be
and the ground above the crown consists of soil. repaired in several sections. Examples from
The tunnel lining as a whole is pushed upwards Switzerland are the railway tunnels Hauenstein
and even the ground surface may exhibit heave. and Ricken and the road tunnels Belchen and
1
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
Wagenburg in the region of Stuttgart in Ger-
many (Amstad and Kovári, 2001). Up until
now, during such repair work this has generally
resulted in an interference to tunnel operations
or even in temporary closure of the tunnel.
Figure 2. Heave of bottom due to swelling in a road tun-
nel in the Gipskeuper formation
Figure 3. Failure of the invert due to swelling pressure in
a road tunnel in the Gipskeuper formation
1.1 The swelling process in the rock surround-
ing the tunnel
That swelling processes only occur in rocks
containing clay minerals or anhydrite or both
and that the presence of surplus water is a basic
condition for the process to take place were
known already when the railway came into
being in the middle of the 19th century. How-
ever, that swelling is triggered by the stress
redistribution due to the excavation of a tunnel
was only realized later, thanks to the work of
Terzaghi (1968).
In this contribution, we shall only be con-
cerned with tunneling experience made during
the long-term operation of traffic tunnels in
rocks containing anhydrite. It is well known that
2
swelling in anhydrite is of a chemical nature and
depends on the transformation of anhydrite min-
erals into gypsum. In this case, under controlled
laboratory conditions, a volume increase of 61%
is theoretically possible. If in the laboratory for
small samples the swelling strain is completely
prevented, maximum swelling pressures of up to
8 MPa can be obtained (Kirschke, 1997).
If we now consider possible swelling pro-
cesses that can occur in the vicinity of a tunnel,
a number of factors deserve special attention.
The rock mass is usually inhomogeneous, so
that the content of swelling minerals and thus
the swelling potential can vary greatly over a
small distance. Even the results of swelling tests
on small samples, taken from the same bore-
hole, usually exhibit great variation. Further, the
permeability of the rock is liable to strong
variations locally due to fissures, jointing, strati-
fications and frequently encountered dislocation
of the bedding joints. Consider, for example,
actual faults and non-swelling but strongly
jointed intermediate rock strata exhibiting par-
ticularly high permeability. One has also to bear
in mind that in rock as a rule, water is present in
the form of both pore water and joint water and
thus the water storage capacity of rock is gen-
erally very variable within larger rock masses.
The swelling process - as mentioned above - is
triggered by creating a cavity causing stress
redistribution in its immediate neighborhood.
This, in turn, can increase the rock volume lo-
cally. As to the ground water movements, on the
excavated surface of the tunnel - prior to placing
the waterproof seal and the final lining - the
pore water pressure falls to the atmospheric
value, so that seepage radial to the cavity occurs
(Anagnostou, 1995).
Furthermore, based on observations and
measurements the following additional remarks
apply: Firstly, the swelling processes in a rock
mass in an amount of practical significance only
occur at the bottom of a cavity. Up till now only
one exception to this rule was observed using
instruments, i.e. in the Chienberg motorway
tunnel in Gipskeuper (Hofer et al. 2007), where
laterally to the profile swelling also occurs at
the level of the invert of the tunnel tube.
Secondly, the swelling strain decreases with
distance from the cavity and is significant at a
depth corresponding to roughly the diameter of
the opening (Kovári et al. 1988). Finally it must
be mentioned that swelling processes can take
place very quickly or with considerable delay,
their intensity can vary strongly and they can
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
persist for many years (Amstad and Kovári,
2001).
1.2 Design and construction
From the above summary of the state of our
empirical and theoretical knowledge, it is clear
that in the planning phase the predictability of
swelling processes for a working life of around
100 years is rather limited, especially in rock
containing anhydrite (Anagnostou, 2007). As
mentioned above, the main reasons lie in our
inadequate knowledge of the distribution of the
swelling potential of in-situ rock, of the supply
of water to the materials exhibiting swelling
capacity and generally of the chemically con-
trolled swelling process due to tunnel excava-
tion as a whole.
In order to counteract the unfavorable effects
of swelling rock, in practice two different con-
struction principles have been adopted (Kovári
et. al 1988). On the one hand, there is the so-
called resistance principle, whereby the heave of
the bottom of the tunnel is prevented by means
of an invert and the swelling pressure that
thereby develops is resisted without any struc-
tural damage. On the other hand, we have the
so-called yielding principle, in which a yielding
zone is placed between the invert and the rock
and a limited heave of the bottom of the tunnel
is allowed in order to reduce the maximum
value of the swelling pressure or at least its rate
of development.
The resistance principle is the widely ac-
cepted solution for estimated small to medium
swelling potential. In cases of low overburden
or soft soil in the crown and in the presence of
swelling ground at the bottom the only solution
is found in the yielding principle, possibly
applying the design concept of Modular Yield-
ing Support (Kovári, 2009).
In the following, we restrict ourselves to the
resistance principle concentrating on the ulti-
mate swelling pressure as the load acting on the
invert. As mentioned above, in the laboratory
swelling pressures up to 8 MPa can be obtained.
Obviously, for such high values no lining design
is feasible or at least economically supportable.
But how does one decide on the design value of
the load acting on the invert for a tunnel in
Gipskeuper in the absence of a scientifically
founded procedure? In view of a number of
planned new road and railway tunnels in Swit-
zerland and Southern Germany, we have pro-
posed systematically back-calculating the de-
3
sign loads valid for a number traffic tunnels that
have been in operation for long time - without
showing signs of overstressing.
2 DESIGN LOADS BASED ON OBSERVED
LONG TERM BEHAVIOUR
It is a fact that for a number of existing road and
railway tunnels located in Gipskeuper in Swit-
zerland and Southern Germany, which have
been in operation for a long time, the tunnel
lining only requires design loads that are much
lower than the above mentioned maximum
loading values derived from laboratory tests. It
shows that these tunnels even after several
decades of operation show no signs of damage
whatsoever. It may be concluded that in a rock
mass on the scale of the structure the swelling
processes take place under completely different
conditions than is the case for artificially soaked
small specimens tested under laboratory condi-
tions. Thus for the design of new tunnels, in
order to provide a rational basis for the decision
on design pressures according to the resistance
principle, five existing tunnel structures were in-
vestigated numerically.
The computations - carried out with the same
computational model and with the same uniform
criteria - are intended to provide information on
the design swelling pressure and on the limiting
values of possible swelling pressure for these
structures. In other words, it is a question of
providing the values needed for the design of
these structures, taking into account the geomet-
rical quantities (shape, dimensions), the material
properties (concrete, steel), the rock stiffness
(embedment of the tunnel arch) as well as the
provisions of the relevant code specifications. It
should be mentioned that the rock around all
these tunnels exhibit a strong swelling potential,
whose parameters vary more or less within the
same limits. Further, the variations in the global
strength and deformation properties of the rock
are comparable, allowing the results of the nu-
merical investigations to be applied quite gen-
erally to the Gipskeuper formation of this geo-
graphical area.
2.1 The investigated tunnel structures
A detailed description of these tunnels and the
experience gained in their construction and du-
ring their operational life, including the results
of deformation measurements in the tunnels and
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
in the ground, is given elsewhere (Amstad and
Kovári, 2001), (Kovári and Descoeudres, 2001).
Here only the most important features are brief-
ly summarized, which are relevant to the numer-
ical investigations.
In Fig. 4 the simplified profiles of the five
investigated tunnels are shown together with
details of the geometry and construction period.
With the exception of the Chienberg tunnel, the
inner concrete linings of all these structures are
reinforced - of course with different amounts of
reinforcement. With the exception of the Adler
railway tunnel all the tunnels are road tunnels.
The three tunnels Chienberg, Mont Terri and
Adler were constructed fairly recently and each
has a circular cross section. Only the Adler
tunnel was driven with a TBM (shield type),
with an excavated diameter of 12.4 m. Apart
from the Belchen tunnel, all the tunnels are
completely waterproofed, which has to be taken
into account in the structural calculations. Re-
garding the Wagenburg tunnel it should be men-
tioned that in this case the inner lining is em-
bedded in a massive outer lining made of in-situ
concrete (Wichter, 1989).
With regard to the final tunnel lining the
Adler tunnel also has a special feature. The
outer lining consists of six concrete segments
and a key stone in the roof. The two concrete
base segments, which meet in the middle of the
tunnel, have a thickness of 0.90 m and those in
the top heading 0.35 m. In Fig. 4 it may be seen
that an in-situ concrete inner lining had been
constructed in the top heading. Its thickness is
up to 0.55 m, so that here too there is a total
lining thickness of 0.90 m. It is relevant in the
structural calculations that between the concrete
segments and the in-situ concrete inner lining
there is a sealing membrane. However, in the
invert there is no sealing.
Figure 4. The investigated tunnels for the determination of their design limit loads
4
2.2 Computational program
The investigation of the selected structures was
carried out using standard FE modeling assump-
tions and computer programs commonly used in
engineering practice. For the inner concrete lin-
ing the code specifications for reinforced con-
crete apply. Two computational states Z1 and
Z2 each with two concrete qualities (C25/30 and
C45/55) were investigated.
In the case of the design (dimensioning) state
Z1, for the swelling pressure p the admissible,
i.e. the code specified value, multiplied by the
load factor SF = 1.35, was used in the calcu-
lations. For the material parameters the design
values fc,d (compressive strength of concrete,
according to the quality) and fy,d (yield limit of
steel reinforcement) were taken into account.
The section forces are determined for all models
asuming purely elastic behavior of the structural
elements (tunnel lining, rock) with the exception
of the applied tension cut-off and zero friction
interface condition between the tunnel lining
and the temporary support.
The limit state Z2 is calculated based upon a
load factor SF = 1.00 and for the material para-
meters the characteristic values fc,k (compres-
sive strength of concrete, according to the qual-
ity) and fy,k (yield limit of steel reinforcement)
are used. The swelling pressure p determined
under this assumption corresponds to the case in
which the first plastic hinge is formed in the
tunnel lining in one place. It is important to note
that the swelling pressure p can be subject to
further increases up to the actual state of limit
equilibrium (membrane state). For the circular
tunnel cross sections (Chienberg, Mont Terri
and Adler) in addition each value of swelling
pressure was determined that corresponds to the
membrane state of complete plastification of the
tunnel lining.
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
The degree of completeness of the investi-
gations carried out is shown by the fact that a
total of over 20 continuum model computations
with the corresponding dimensioning were per-
formed and reported. In this way one obtains a
greater depth of understanding of the structural
reserves of the investigated tunnel structures
and thus of the limit state values for the maxi-
mum possible value of the effective swelling
pressures up to the present day.
3 COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURE
As a modeling assumption - as generally adopt-
ed in tunneling calculations - the two-dimen-
sional plane state condition was applied. In each
case a tunnel cross section with a continuous in-
situ concrete inner lining is assumed. The ge-
ometry and thickness of the inner lining is taken
into account using the available project data. An
exception is the Adler tunnel with its double
shell lining, which was modeled accordingly.
With this tunnel both the outer and inner linings
are constructed with sulfate-resistant concrete
providing long-term durability.
The basis for the computational model is the
value of the loads acting on the inner lining.
Here, for the sake of clarity, only the swelling
pressure at the base (invert) is considered as an
active loading, i.e. any loosening pressure in the
region of the roof or any imposed water pres-
sure is not taken into account (Fig. 5). It is al-
ways assumed that the direction of loading is
radial, as is general practice. The pressure acts
directly on the invert. Following Amstad and
Kovári (2001) it is assumed that in the case of a
circular cross section the spread angle of the
load is 120°. In the case of non-circular cross
sections the angle of load spread on the invert is
adjusted accordingly.
Figure 5. Computational model
5
The support of the inner lining can be mod-
eled realistically using the plane strain assump-
tion, whereby - as mentioned above - for the
rock elastic material behavior is assumed. The
Young's modulus of the rock is taken as E = 4
GPa. A special modeling of the outer lining,
which is present for a conventionally driven
tunnel, is dispensed with and this is accounted
for by assuming that it is part of the surrounding
rock with its mechanical properties. From this
point of view the Wagenburg tunnel is an ex-
ception (see Section 2.1). The Young's modulus
of the concrete is assumed to be E = 35 GPa.
For the modeling of the inner lining, beam ele-
ments are used with a given compressive and
flexural stiffness (EA and EI) for the un-cracked
stage. Here the system line is assumed to be the
same as the centerline of the inner lining.
4 CALCULATED LOAD LIMITS
For each tunnel, as already mentioned, the two
computational states Z1 and Z2 with in each
case two concrete qualities C25/30 and C45/55
were investigated. In the case of the three cir-
cular tunnel cross sections (Chienberg, Mont
Terri and Adler) the corresponding values of the
swelling pressure were also determined for the
membrane state. The basis for the calculation of
the swelling pressures is provided by the corre-
sponding variation of the section forces (bend-
ing moment M and normal force N).
By means of an example, the calculated re-
sults for the Belchen tunnel are briefly discussed
(Fig. 6). In the invert (min. reinforcement) the
most critical cross section is the middle section.
In the interaction diagrams (M/N) presented
here the two curves representing the two con-
crete qualities C25/30 and C45/55 clearly show
their influence. The critical combination values
M/N in the cross section, denoted by two points,
and the corresponding swelling pressures p are
given. The arrows indicate the increase in the
calculated swelling pressures as a result of the
better concrete quality. Due to ageing, the effec-
tive concrete quality in the Belchen tunnel prob-
ably lies between the concrete qualities selected
for this investigation. The diagrams in Fig. 6
also show the difference between the swelling
pressures obtained for the design state Z1 and
the limit state Z2 for the concrete qualities
C25/30 and C45/55. Since on the basis of the
inspections of the structures it may be assumed
that the tunnel lining is still fully intact and no
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

completely plastified cross section is present, it
can be assumed that the effective swelling pres-
sure has not exceeded the value p = 1.4 MPa
(state Z2, C25/30). The highest possible con-
ceivable value of the swelling pressure should
not exceed p = 2.3 MPa (state Z2, C45/55).
considerable influence of the steel reinforce-
ment. It is notable that the Adler tunnel with a
thickness of the concrete segments in the invert
of 0.90 m and a comparable total thickness in
the sidewalls and the top heading but without
reinforcement in the cast-in concrete lead to al-
most the same design values as in the Chienberg
tunnel. As shown in Section 2.1, or from Fig. 4,
here in the sidewalls between the lining seg-
ments and the inner lining there is a sealing
membrane that reduces the flexural strength of
the tunnel lining as a whole. In fact, the critical
point in the tunnel cross section is in this region
and not in the tunnel invert.
For the three tunnels Chienberg, Mont Terri
and Adler also the theoretical case of the
membrane state with fully plastification of the
cross section (only normal force N in the lining)
was calculated (Fig. 8).

Figure 6. Belchen tunnel: Design loads Z1 and limit loads

Z2 for C25/30 and C45/55

The systematic execution of the computation-

al investigations for all five tunnels provided the
results shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
In the graphical representation (Fig. 7), for Figure 7. Overview of design loads Z1 and limit loads Z2
each tunnel two pairs of points are shown on
vertical lines. The lower values represent the
concrete quality C25/30 and the higher values
those for C45/55. The continuous line represents
the results of the design state Z1 and the dashed
line those for the limit state Z2. It is evident that
the two older tunnels with a horseshoe cross
section yield much smaller swelling pressures
than the newer tunnels with a circular cross
section. Here, for the limit state Z2, the in-
fluence of the concrete quality is much greater
than in the case of the design state Z1. In the
case of the Chienberg tunnel with an unrein-
forced inner lining, the higher concrete quality
results in an almost doubling of the calculated
swelling pressure. A comparison of the values
for the states Z1 and Z2 for this tunnel with
Figure 8. Overview of design loads Z1 and limit loads Z2
those of the Mont Terri tunnel emphasizes the (including loads obtained for membrane state)
6
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
5 PARAMETRIC STUDIES
Now the structural computations are extended to
investigate the influence of the lining thickness
d and the rock stiffness E on the section forces
(bending moment M and normal force N). Fur-
ther, the influence of the swelling pressure p on
the required steel reinforcement as a function of
the lining thickness d and the rock stiffness E is
investigated.
Figure 9. Effect of lining thickness on the section forces
(normal force and bending moment)
As a model the circular cross section is con-
sidered with an internal diameter of 8.0 m, a
value typical for single-track railway tunnels.
Between the outer and inner linings a water-
proof seal is taken into account, so that for the
interface elements neither tensile strength, nor
any friction effect is considered. The thickness
of the in-situ concrete lining is assumed to be
variable with 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 m (Fig. 9). Here
too the swelling pressure is assumed to be uni-
formly distributed acting on the lining in the
radial direction. From a series of computations,
it is shown that the section forces M and N
depend linearly on the swelling pressure. Clear-
ly the interface elements with their assumed me-
chanical properties have no practically relevant
effect regarding the nonlinearity of the problem.
Therefore, it is possible to present the compu-
tational results in Fig. 9 in terms of the quotients
M/p and N/p, i.e. normalized with the swelling
pressure. This figure shows the influence of the
lining thickness d on the development of the
7
section forces M and N in the critical cross
sections, i.e. in the sidewalls and in the middle
of the invert (see the indication of the points in
the tunnel lining). One recognizes immediately
that the normalized normal force N/p in the
sidewalls is hardly influenced by the lining
thickness d. However, this conclusion is only
valid for the point in the middle of the invert.
With increasing lining thickness d smaller sup-
port reaction forces are mobilized, so that the
normal force decreases with increasing d. If one
now considers the development of the corre-
sponding bending moment M/p, it is seen that it
increases rapidly with increasing lining thick-
ness d. Here too the explanation lies in the de-
crease in support reaction by the rock with in-
creasing stiffness.
Figure 10. Effect of rock stiffness on the section forces
(normal force and bending moment)
We now consider Fig. 10, in which the in-
fluence of the rock stiffness E on the normalized
section forces M/p and N/p is presented. For the
geological Gipskeuper formation containing an-
hydrite the assumption of a Young's modulus of
E = 4 GPa is appropriate (Amstad and Kovári,
2001). As may be seen from the figure, a higher
value of E by itself is scarcely of practical sig-
nificance for the bending moment M/p. For half
the value, i.e. for E = 2 GPa however the ben-
ding moment M/p increases by about 10 to 20%
while for the normal force N/p it decreases
above all in the middle of the invert.
It is of great economic interest to learn what
influence the selected thickness d of the inner
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
lining and the design swelling pressure p has on
the required amount of steel reinforcement. We
have determined (according to the state Z1) both
the average specific steel content (as a function
of the volume of concrete) as also on the ab-
solute steel content per tunnel meter (chainage
length). The reinforcement includes the bending
reinforcement, the longitudinal reinforcement as
well as the stirrups. These calculations are based
on the determined section forces along the tun-
nel profile and are valid for the concrete quality
C45/55, for a rock stiffness of E = 4 GPa and
for a design swelling pressure between p = 2.0
MPa and p = 4.0 MPa. As shown in Fig. 11 and
Fig. 12 on the abscissa of the diagrams, they
were determined in steps of 0.5 MPa.
Figure 11. Concrete reinforcement in function of swelling
pressure and lining thickness
Fig. 11 (above) shows the required total steel
content per tunnel meter [to/m] in function of
the swelling pressure p and the different lining
thicknesses d = 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 m. The dashed
horizontal lines indicate the minimum reinforce-
ment prescribed in the codes for the correspond-
ing lining thickness d. For a swelling pressure of
p = 2 MPa the minimal reinforcement is suffi-
cient for practical purposes. For smaller values
there would be no need for reinforcement at all
(see Chienberg tunnel, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8). Up to
a swelling pressure of p = 3 MPa the total steel
content per tunnel meter is practically independ-
8
ent of the inner lining thickness d. Even for
higher values the concrete lining thickness d has
little influence.
If one now considers the average specific
steel content [kg/m3], it is apparent from Fig. 11
(below) that a lining thickness of d = 0.6 m is of
practical interest only for p = 2.5 MPa, whereas
for the greater lining thickness of d = 1.0 m a
swelling pressure of p = 3.5 MPa would still be
possible. The average specific steel content is in
this respect not relevant, as in the critical cross
sections of the tunnel profile such a large con-
centration of reinforcement would be necessary
that the practicability of installing the reinforce-
ment might reach its limits. In fact, in the case
of a lining thickness of d = 0.6 m and a swelling
pressure of p = 2.5 MPa one obtains an average
specific steel content [kg/m3] of 150 kg/m3 al-
though in the sidewalls a value of 370 kg/m3 is
required.
Figure 12. Concrete reinforcement in function of swelling
pressure and rock stiffness
Finally the question was considered, to what
extent the rock stiffness E assumed for the
calculations influences the required steel content
for a given swelling pressure p. In Fig. 12 it
may be seen that both the total and the specific
steel content for stiffness values higher than E ≥
4 GPA are for practical purposes of no further
significance. This is because above these values
the support reactions only slightly increase and
 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
thus a further reduction of the bending moment
is not possible. For E = 2 GPa one observes an
increase of the required reinforcement content.
From the diagrams it may be seen that for the
design state Z1 a lining thickness of d = 0.6 m is
only feasible up to a swelling pressure p = 2.5
MPa. For higher pressures p greater lining
thicknesses must be selected.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In tunneling through formations, such as Gips-
keuper, that contain anhydrite one has to reckon
with the presence of swelling pressures on the
invert. The pressure results as a reaction to con-
strained heave due to swelling. Swelling phe-
nomena are caused by the chemical conversion
of anhydrite into gypsum, for which the supply
of surplus water is a prerequisite. The swelling
is triggered by the stress redistribution due to
the excavation of the cavity. Experience gained
in practice shows that practically only the tunnel
invert is affected by the swelling processes and
this applies only for a depth of roughly the di-
ameter of the tunnel.
In practice the question arises, what pressures
on the invert can be expected in the course of
the relatively long operational life (around 100
years). Up to the present time, in practice design
often was largely influenced by the results of
laboratory swelling tests. Since laboratory tests
were carried out on samples of small dimen-
sions and under steady supply of water, there is
a considerable discrepancy regarding the condi-
tions at the scale of a tunnel in a rock mass.
Besides the very complex hydraulic conditions
the different chemical conditions in-situ play an
important part. It is clear that a scientifically
based determination of the swelling pressure
acting on the invert in a given situation is prac-
tically impossible. In practice in the specifica-
tion of the design swelling pressure for the final
tunnel lining there is wide latitude of engineer-
ing judgment. In order to limit the scope for
decision-making, one can fall back on the ex-
perience gained in existing traffic tunnels built
in the Gipskeuper formation, some of which
have been in operation for many decades. Re-
cently it was noticed that based on experience in
existing tunnel structures the maximum swelling
pressure obtained from laboratory tests is hardly
ever reached in practice. What design swelling
pressure these structures built according to the
codes could withstand has only occasionally
9
been investigated. The aim of this work was to
determine these design swelling pressures for
different criteria taking into account the prop-
erties of the structures (geometry, reinforcement
content, stiffness of the rock mass, etc.) compu-
tationally with consideration of the code pro-
visions. Since in the tunnel structures investi-
gated no damage had been caused to the inner
lining, the computed values only give a lower
limit of the corresponding design swelling pres-
sures.
It was shown that with the investigated older
traffic tunnels with a horseshoe cross section the
design swelling pressure was around 1 MPa and
with the recent road and railway tunnels with a
circular cross section it could be up to 2 MPa.
However, until complete plastification can oc-
cur in a part of the tunnel lining, the swelling
pressure must be considerably higher. In this
paper, for a better understanding of the forces
acting in the structure the results of detailed
parametric studies have also been described.
REFERENCES
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