RES-Based Model in Evaluation of Surface Settlement Caused by EPB Shield Tunneling

The settlement induced by the tunneling operation is always threatening the surface buildings structures in urban and residential areas or other underground facilities such as pipelines. Hence, different empirical, analytical, and numerical methods have been used to analyze such a complex problem in which numerous parameters are involved. However, these methods cannot systematically model the interaction between the influencing parameters. The rock engineering systems (RES) is an approach capable of systematic analyzing and modeling of the interacting factors which control the behavior of an engineering system. In this paper, the RES approach was used to investigate the maximum surface settlement (MSS) caused by earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunneling. Ten parameters influencing MSS were considered, including depth, distance from shaft, ground water level from tunnel invert, average face pressure, average penetrate rate, pitching angle, grouting pressure, grout filling, geology at tunnel crown, and geology at tunnel invert. To establish the model, a database was collected from the construction of Bangkok subway tunnel. The obtained results indicated that RES is a reliable approach for evaluating and estimating MSS caused by EPB shield tunneling for the specified range of influencing parameters.