• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.81-98
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• 1999

The influence of tunnelling on buildings has become an important issue in urban areas. The problem is an interactive one: not only do tunnelling settlements affect existing structures, but existing structures affect tunnel-induced soil movements. In order to examine the constraint of surface settlement and the degradation of building damage parameters, 3-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element analyses are peformed. Also, in this paper, the results of the parametric studies for the variations of the damage parameters due to the ground movements are presented by utilizing 2-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element models, totally 162 models. The width of a structure, its bending and axial stiffness, its position relative to the tunnel and the depth of tunnel are considered. The interaction is shown by reference to commonly-used building damage parameters, namely angular distortion, deflection ratio, maximum building settlements, maximum differential settlements and horizontal strain. By introducing relative stiffness parameters which combine the bending and axial stiffness of the structure with its width and stiffness of soil, design curves are established. These give a guide as to the likely modification of the greenfield settlement trough caused by a surface structure. They can be used to give initial estimates of likely building damage.