A Physical Modeling of Ground Movement Around HDPE Pipes Subjected to Tunneling

摘要

HDPE pipes are extensively used in urban areas. Tunneling in urban areas can cause HDPE pipes failure due to the ground movement. Existing methods in estimating the ground movement caused by tunneling only can be used in green-field case. It can be imagined that the existence of pipes can affect the ground movement. In this study, a large-scale physical model test was used to investigate the influence of existence of pipes on the ground movement. Four cases including green-field case, two different buried depths and two different diameters of pipes were tested. Test results show that the existence of pipes can limit the settlement but enlarge the width of settlement trough; and displacements of tested pipes decrease with the increasing of buried depth and diameter of pipes.