Optimization of Design and Monitoring of Immersed Tunnels

Many immersed tunnels have already reached or are about to reach the halfway point of their intended lifespan of 100 years. Around this time, several structural problems were noticed during inspection which have led to performance deterioration and durability issues of the tunnel. Often large- scale maintenance was required to meet the design...

Augmented satellite inSAR for assessing short-term and long-term surface deformation due to shield tunnelling

In this work, we investigate if, when, and how satellite InSAR can be used for evaluating surface settlements that occur during shield tunnelling in soft soil areas. We evaluate the applicability of InSAR prior, during, and after tunnel construction. Special emphasis is placed on the influence of the InSAR phase ambiguities in relation to short...

An assessment of the relation between monitored settlements and the face stability of a slurry-TBM

During the boring of a tunnel in soft soils with a slurry TBM, support pressure is used to achieve equilibrium at the face of the TBM. When this equilibrium is not reached, when the face support pressure is too low or too high, settlements will occur. In this research settlement and pore water pressure measurements are used to monitor the...

Correlation between the kinematics of a Tunnel Boring Machine and the observed soil displacements

Constructing tunnels in soft soil with the use of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) may induce settlements. A considerable amount of the total soil displacements is correlated with the passage of the TBM-shield. Even so, the TBM-induced soil displacements are so far only coarsely correlated to the total settlements. This paper relates the shield...