The possibility of partial failure of large slurry shield-driven tunnels is investigated by an upperboundapproach in limit analysis and a three-dimensional numerical modeling for the Shanghai Yangtze RiverTunnel. The results of the upper-bound limit analysis failure mechanisms and the 3D numerical modeling haveshown that the partial blow-out of the upper part of the tunnel face occurs when the slurry pressure is too largewhile the global collapse of the whole tunnel face occurs when the slurry pressure is too small. The failuremechanisms and critical slurry pressures obtained from both approaches are presented and discussed.
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