Influence of pile raft stiffness on building behaviour in a tunnel-pile clash scenario

摘要

© The authors and ICE Publishing: All rights reserved, 2015.In a modern urban environment, the underground space becomes increasingly congested due to the high value of the land that forces the new infrastructure projects to be constructed deeper into the ground. For each new project, the potential of both expected and unexpected clashes between new tunnel alignments and the foundations of the existing structures becomes more probable. However, to date, the research on tunnel-pile clashes has been scarce. In the current study, the effects of such a situation are studied by carrying out finite element analyses for a scenario that is typical in the London ground profile. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of the pile raft bending stiffness on the building settlement and the change in piles axial forces. It is shown that an increased raft bending stiffiiess helps to transfer the load from the trimmed pile to the adjacent piles, thus reducing the settlement of the trimmed pile. In the process of tunnel excavation, the pile settles due to the soil-induced downdrag and the loss of both its base and part of its shaft capacity. It is concluded that the tunnel-pile clash has a large impact on the surface structure, piles and tunnel itself.