Investigation of Tunnel Deformation in Sandy Ground with Clay Inclined Layers using Geotechnical Centrifuge

Behavior of soil during construction of tunnels is one of the important topics studied in the geotechnical engineering that regards to ground settlement and tunnel deformations. During last decades tunneling technology has improved and developed around the world and a lot of tunnels constructed in shallow depth of urban areas for different purposes. Excessive settlement from Tunneling may cause damage to adjacent buildings and overlying facilities. Therefore, the behavior of the soil and interaction between soil and tunnel during tunneling has major significance and should be studied. This research work presents the results of laboratory and numerical investigations on the deformation behavior of tunnel, modeled in sandy soil with incline layers of clay in various levels of surcharge A series of 15 tests are conducted using geotechnical centrifuge apparatus of Geotechnical Research Center at Iran University of Science and Technology and tunnel deformations is investigated in different conditions of incline clay layers. Experimental results show that the placement of inclined clay layers in sandy soil increases the vertical and horizontal deformations of the tunnels about 230 and 140 percent, respectively.