Convergence-confinement method for simulating NATM tunnels evaluated by comparison with full 3D simulations
2010
Abstract
The convergence-confinement method (CCM) for simulating NATM tunnels using plane strain finite element method was in the paper evaluated by comparison with fully 3D simulations. Three real shallow tunnels in urban environment in different stiff clays were simulated.
The soil behaviour was described by an advanced non-linear soil constitutive model based on the hypoplasticity theory. It was shown that for an optimum value of the parameter λd the displacement field predicted by the CCM method agrees well with the 3D simulations.
The controlling parameter was, however, found to be dependent on the problem simulated (for the same material) and also on the material properties (for the same tunneling problem).