Responses of single piles to tunneling-induced soil movements in sandy ground

Abstract

The responses of single piles under various working loads to nearby tunneling were investigated using centrifuge model tests. First, the tunneling-induced soil movements and the tunnel stability in saturated sandy ground were examined. Two instrumented piles with penetration depths of 27 m were located either side of, and at various distances from, tunnels embedded at depths with various cover-to-diameter ratios, and used to measure the bending moments and axial forces at various depths for various ground loss ratios during tunneling simulations. The test results show that in the case of shallow tunneling near a long pile the unit skin frictions on the pile from the tunnel axis to an elevation of 1.5 tunnel diameters above the tunnel axis rapidly decrease with increases in the ground loss ratio. A significant degradation of the end bearing capacity results in a large settlement of the pile if the pile tip is near the tunnel. The depth ratio was found to be a significant influence on the bending moment profiles along the piles, but both the depth ratio and the working loads on the pile head determine the axial load profile and the pile settlement. A mechanism for pile load transfer during new tunneling is proposed to enable construction engineers to prevent structure failure in piles and excessive pile settlement.