RESEARCH ARTICLE
Numerical Investigation of Innovative Support Frame of Openings in the Segmental Tunnel Lining
Sanaz Ebrahimi1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 14
First Page: 358
Last Page: 369
Publisher ID: TOBCTJ-14-358
DOI: 10.2174/1874836802014010358
Article History:
Received Date: 30/06/2020Revision Received Date: 29/09/2020
Acceptance Date: 12/10/2020
Electronic publication date: 21/12/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
To supply safety in the tunnels, it is necessary to construct escape routes and emergency exits that are performed by locating cross passages.
Methods:
These passages connect two tunnels transversely and apply escape routes. Using temporary steel structures to supply the ring stability in practice and reinforced concrete frame to stabilize the ring permanently can be appropriate to form a solid frame that transfers the opened ring's load to the opening surroundings. In this paper, a 3D finite element simulation was performed to analyze the influence of opening construction in the segmental concrete lining and a temporary support system. Using the simulation, stress and deformation distribution of the steel frame, bolts, and segmental lining were obtained.
Results:
The results show that by increasing the number of bolts from 18 to 30, the induced stress in the steel frame and bolts decreased to 76 and 59 percent, respectively. In addition, the maximum displacement in the segmental lining and the maximum opening value of the joints decline to 62.7 and 75 percent, respectively.
Conclusion:
Finally, it can be concluded that the steel frame can be used as a temporary support system.