Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

Subsea tunnels that link land to island and among nations for transportation, efficient development of limited surface and pursuit of economic development should be designed to support pore water pressure on the lining. It is generally constructed in the bed rock of the sea bottom. When the tunnel e...

Subsea tunnels that link land to island and among nations for transportation, efficient development of limited surface and pursuit of economic development should be designed to support pore water pressure on the lining. It is generally constructed in the bed rock of the sea bottom. When the tunnel excavation face meets fractured-zones below sea bottom, collapse may occur due to an increase of pore water pressure and large inflow. Such an example can be found in the Norwegian subsea tunnel experiences in 1980's. In this study hydraulic behavior of tunnel heading is investigated using numerical method based on the collapse of Norwegian subsea tunnel. The effect of pore water pressure and inflow rate were mainly concerned. Horse-shoe shaped model tunnel which has 50 m depth from the sea bottom is considered. To evaluate hydraulic performance, parametric study was carried out for varying relative permeability. It is revealed that pore water pressure has increased with an increase of sea depth. Especially, at the fractured-zone, pore water pressure on the lining has increased significantly. Inflow rate into tunnel has also increased correspondingly with an increase in sea depth. S-shaped characteristic relation between relative permeability and normalized pore water pressure was obtained.