• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.761-778
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• 2017

The need of the underground space for the infrastructures in urban area is increasing, and especially the demand for shallow tunnels increased drastically. It is very important that the shallow tunnel in the urban area should fulfill not only its own safety conditions but also the safety condition for the adjacent structures and the surrounding sub-structure. Most of the studies on the behavior of shallow tunnels concentrated only on their behaviors due to the local deformation of the tunnel, such as tunnel crown or tunnel sidewall. However, few studies have been performed for the behavior of the shallow tunnel due to the deformation of the entire tunnel. Therefore, in this study the behavior of the surrounding ground and the stability caused by deformation of the whole tunnel were studied. For that purpose, model tests were performed for the various ground surface slopes and the cover depth of the tunnel. The model tunnel (width 300 mm, height 200 mm) could be simulationally deformed in the vertical and horizontal direction. The model ground was built by using carbon rods of three types (4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm), in various surface slopes and cover depth of the tunnel. The subsidence of ground surface, the load on the tunnel crown and the sidewall, and the transferred load near tunnel were measured. As results, the ground surface subsided above the tunnel, and its amount decreased as the distance from the tunnel increased. The influence of a tunnel ceased in a certain distance from the tunnel. At the inclined ground surface, the wider subsidence has been occurred. The loads on the crown and the sidewall were clearly visible, but there was no effect of the surface slope at a certain depth. The load transfer on the adjacent ground was larger when the cover depth (on the horizontal surface) was lager. The higher the level (on the inclined surface), the wider and smaller it appeared. On the shallow tunnel under inclined surface, the transfer of the ambient load on the tunnel sidewall (low side) was clearly visible.