Undrained stability of a single circular tunnel in spatially variable soil subjected to surcharge loading

The stability of tunnels is an important problem in geotechnical engineering. Most of the previous studies dealing with the stability of unlined tunnels are deterministic in nature and do not consider the soil spatial variability. This study investigates the influence of spatial variability on the undrained stability of an unlined circular tunnel, using Random Adaptive Finite Element Limit Analysis (RAFELA). The effect of spatial variability is investigated for tunnels having two different ratios of γD/cu, for different spatial correlation lengths and tunnel depths. The results indicate that the effect of spatial variability depends on γD/cu and the depth of the tunnel.