Numerical investigation of underlying tunnel heave during a new tunnel construction

This paper presents a case study of protecting existing tunnels during the construction of a new cut-and-cover tunnel above in Nanjing, China. Various construction measures, including sequential excavation, jet grouting, and a pile–slab retaining system were performed to control the heave of existing tunnels. Furthermore, a numerical analysis using a finite difference program, FLAC3D, was conducted to investigate the influence of different construction schemes on the tunnel heave. Finally, a comparison between numerical results and field measurements were carried out to study the influence on the tunnel heave from various factors, such as the ground reinforcement depth, excavation sequence, and the skew angle between new tunnel and existing tunnels. The results show that when the excavation volume is small, the uplift values of existing tunnels increase nonlinearly with the increasing excavation width of each step. The pile–slab retaining system combining with ground treatment method can control the tunnel heave within the required limits. The optimum ground treatment scope is about 1.5 times of the excavation depth in this project. Compared to other construction schemes, the tunnel heave will be the smallest under a staggered segmentation excavation method starting from the sides to the center.