A Simplified Way to Evaluate the Effect of Temperature on a Circular Tunnel

Abstract

Temperature differences between the surrounding ground and the tunnel lining will cause a variation of the tunnel lining forces. The hyperstatic reaction method (HRM) could be efficiently and simply used to investigate the impact of thermal load on tunnel linings. First, the steady state numerical solution is derived for a shallow circular tunnel to estimate the internal forces and displacements of tunnel lining caused by thermal load. The effective strain coefficient βTl is deduced to calculate the thermal stresses in tunnel lining. Secondly, the influence of the temperature difference on the internal forces of tunnel lining is investigated using the HRM method considering different lining elastic modulus, lining thickness and ground coefficient of thermal expansion. Lastly, the impact of fires which will be able to modify the elastic modulus of tunnel lining is investigated, which makes it possible to predict the damage of tunnel lining caused by fires.