Analysis of shearing effect on tunnel induced by load transfer along longitudinal direction

In order to analyze the behavior of load transfer mechanism of shield-constructed tunnel in longitudinal direction, tunnel is modeled as the cylindrical shell within elastic foundation (CSEF). By applying the theory of elastic cylindrical shell (ECS) with considering shear deformation and assumed displacement functions of trigonometric series, the distribution of stress and deformation in tunnel lining is obtained. In the solution, the stiffness of tunnel lining is decomposed into two components of circumferential and radial stiffness. The effects of both components on the behavior of deformation and internal forces of tunnel lining are discussed in details. By using the proposed solution, more reasonable results on the behavior of tunnel lining are obtained, e.g bending moment in tunnel cross section becomes smaller with the increase of the circumferential shear stiffness. The analytical results are verified by the results of 3D FEM analysis and field measured data. In accordance with the proposed analytical method, the tunnel lining in soft ground should be designed via considering the following aspects: (i) three dimensional effect of tunnel lining; (ii) relatively weaker shear stiffness in radial direction, and (iii) increase the circumferential shear resistance between rings.