Finite Element Analysis of Ground Behaviour due to Box-jacking Tunnel Work

Abstract

A box-jacking tunnel method is a new mechanized tunnelling method which has been developed to construct large scale tunnels undercrossing the existing traffics in urban areas. During the box jacking operation, a box-module is driven forward by applying mechanical forces and excavating the soil in front of the box-module with boring machine. The step-by-step insertion of the box-module forms a lining frame of the tunnel in the ground and after completion of the lining frame, the tunnel is complete by excavation of soil within the internal section of the frame. In this study, the step-by-step advancement and excavation processes of the box-module are modelled using the finite element method with the finite element remeshing technique. Three dimensional finite element analyses are conducted to simulate the construction process of a box jacking tunnelling work and the numerical results are compared with the field measurements.