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NUMERICAL STUDY ON TUNNEL FINAL LINING BEHAVIOUR

Patrizia Bernardi, Roberto Cerioni, Elena Michelini, Maria Migliazza


Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture
University of Parma, v.le G.P. Usberti 181/A 43100 PARMA ITALY




Keywords: final lining, spritz beton, non-linear finite element modelling

INTRODUCTION
The design of an appropriate tunnel permanent lining follows rules different from standard
structures, including the consideration of several aspects, among which functional requirements,
geology and hydrology, constructability and economy. For these reasons, from the structural point
of view, the overall problem is quite complicated, because the interaction between rock and lining
material must be necessary considered. The mechanical behaviour of the rock mass is the most
important problem for the stability of a tunnel, because this material supports most or all of the
distress caused by the excavation of the tunnel opening by redistributing stress around opening.
Cast-in-place concrete lining represents a quite widespread typology of final support, thanks to its
resistance to static actions as ground support and to its reduced costs of execution. It also protects
the rock against erosion and deleterious action of water. This structural concrete element can be
reinforced by using ordinary steel mesh or fibres or both of them. Also unreinforced concrete lining
can be adopted if the rock is in equilibrium prior to concrete placement, and the loads on the lining
are expected to be uniform and radial (EM 1110-2-2901, 1997). Anyway, reinforcement can
become necessary also to guarantee a continuous, crack-free surface able to protect water-sensitive
ground.
Final lining design can be performed by using empirical, analytical or numerical methods, in order
to approximate (with more or less precision) the real case study. The designer must select the
method which best approximates the character and complexity of the conditions and the tunnel
shape and size. Bending moments developed in a lining are dependent on the stiffness of the lining
relative to that of the rock. The relationship between relative stiffness and moment can be studied
using closed solution for elastic interaction between rock and lining. These assumptions are hardly
ever met in real cases except when a lining is installed immediately behind the advancing face of a
tunnel, before elastic stresses have reached a state of plane strain equilibrium. For more general
cases, moments and forces in circular and noncircular tunnel linings can be determined using
structural finite element programs. This kind of approach allows to handle the most general cases,
which can include variable properties of rock and lining elements, irregular boundaries and shapes.
According to the adopted FEM modelling, more and more refined analyses can be performed in
order to evaluate deformations and stability of the excavation face, loads and stresses in the lining
as well as rock lining interaction (Galli et al., 2004). 2D numerical models are more popular with
respect to 3D ones, although a three-dimensional modelling allows to afford more complex
problems and to evaluate the effects of the excavation process.
In this paper 3D finite element analyses have been performed in order to properly simulate tunnel
excavation and lining installation stages. The attention is focused on concrete final lining design,
with the primary aim to determine the role of fibres with respect to traditional welded steel mesh on
the structural behaviour of final lining.
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NON-LINEAR FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING
FE models have been implemented into the finite element code ABAQUS. Tunnel excavation has
been simulated first through a step-by-step procedure, where the installation of lining has been
divided into two main phases: preliminary shotcrete lining activation and final lining activation
(invert arch, lateral sides and crown). A subsequent model considering the tunnel after excavation
so to represent a serviceability condition has been also performed.
3D FE modelling has been preferred so to properly simulate the rock-structure interaction, and also
to evaluate the most important parameters governing the global behaviour of the lining itself. Since
the attention is focused on final lining stress and strain distribution, a refined non-linear constitutive
model for reinforced concrete elements (Belletti et al, 2001, 2003, Cerioni et al., 2008) has been
adopted to represent the local behaviour of concrete reinforced by fibres and ordinary bars and to
provide stress and strain fields of the single materials as well as crack pattern and failure modes of
structural elements. Preliminary lining, whose behaviour has been properly investigated in previous
works (Bernardi et al., 2008), has been simulated with a damage constitutive model available in
ABAQUS library.

Definition of the case-study
A deep tunnel with an horse-shoe cross-section characterised by a medium excavation diameter of
about 11.6 m and a cover height equal to 5 diameters has been considered. Symmetric loading
conditions with respect to the tunnel vertical axis have been assumed. The tunnel is supposed to be
excavated with conventional methods in a marly-sandstone rock mass, for which the following
parameters have been assumed: density = 25 kN/m
3
, Young modulus E = 5000 MPa, Poissons
ratio = 0.25, friction angle = 28 and cohesion c = 70 kPa. For the rock mass an elastic-plastic
behaviour described through Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion, available in ABAQUS library, has
been adopted. An anisotropic initial stress distribution has also been considered, assuming the k
0

coefficient (which relates horizontal to vertical stresses in undisturbed conditions) equal to 0.5.
Preliminary and final linings have been assumed as constituted by concrete rings, whose
characteristic mechanical properties assumed in the step-by-step analysis are reported in Table 1.
Since the most critical conditions may occur before its full strength is reached, the stiffness and
strength properties of shotcrete lining have been assumed as referred to 1 day curing. The resulting
shotcrete mechanical properties have been further reduced in order to take into account the poor
adhesion between the shotcrete layer and the marly-sandstone rock mass.
First-phase lining has been hypothesised as 10 cm thick, while final lining has been considered 40
cm thick. The thickness of final lining has been chosen also considering that 25-30 cm is usually a
lower limit for cast-in-place concrete in order to avoid concrete placing problems (ITA Working
Group, 1988, AFTES, 2000).

Table 1 Mechanical properties of preliminary and final lining
Concrete f
c

(MPa)
f
c,cube

(MPa)
f
ct

(MPa)
E
c

(MPa)

c0
d
max

(mm)

Preliminary (1 day) 11.5 14.0 1.0 27484 0.002 15 0.2
Final 27 32.53 2.2 35555 0.002 15 0.2

Preliminary lining has been hypothesised without any reinforcement, while, as regards final lining
reinforcement, the two most common solutions used in tunnelling practice, that is steel bars and
steel fibres, have been examined. The reinforcement has been placed only in the invert arch and in
the lower part of lateral sides, while the crown and the upper part of sides, which are mainly
subjected to compressive stresses, are supposed to be realised in plain concrete.
The steel reinforcement has been hypothesised as constituted by longitudinal 16 mm bars equally
spaced at 33 cm, while transversal reinforcement was made of 12 mm steel bars 25 cm spaced. This
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reinforcement is arranged in two layers along the final lining thickness. For steel fibres the
following parameters have been assumed in the performed numerical analyses: fibre length L
f
= 30
mm, fibre diameter
f
= 0.7 mm, fibre volume fraction V
f
= 0.51%. This fibre content has been
chosen so to have quite the same weight of steel per cubic metre as the one corresponding to the
previously defined ordinary reinforced lining.

Three-dimensional model
A three-dimensional model of a significant portion of tunnel and surrounding ground has been
carried out. Since symmetric conditions have been assumed, only one half of the tunnel cross-
section has been modelled. The extent of the finite element mesh from the vertical axis of symmetry
has been taken equal to 5.5 tunnel diameters, in order to reach steady state conditions and to
eliminate almost any influence of the outer boundary. In the longitudinal direction, a tunnel length
of 70 m has been modelled.
The rock mass has been modelled through eight-node full integration linear brick elements,
characterised by three degrees of freedom at each node and 8 integration points within the element.
The same element type has been also adopted to represent the temporary lining. Final lining, whose
constitutive behaviour has been described by a more refined non-linear constitutive model for
elements subjected to plane stresses, has been modelled with four-node, three-layered shell
elements. These elements describe the mechanical behavior in terms of stresses and strains referred
to their middle plane, being then suitable for the chosen constitutive model. A Gauss reduced
integration in the shell plane has been adopted, while Simpson integration rule has been used
through the element thickness, in order to get useful numerical results at the intrados and extrados
surfaces of the element.
Shell elements representing final lining have been connected to the nodes of brick elements which
constitute preliminary lining and thus identify the reference surface where also shell nodes have
been defined. Since by default the reference surface is coincident with the shells midsurface, in this
case it has been necessary to assign an offset between the shell middle plane and the reference
surface, in order to correctly represent final lining thickness avoiding element interpenetration. The
degrees of freedom for the shell are associated with the reference surface and all kinematic
quantities, including the elements area, are calculated there.

~ 5.5 D
~ 5 D
~ 5 D
D
70 m

Figure 1. (a) Three-dimensional FE mesh of the whole model; (b)transversal cross-section geometry of the
opening; (c) FE mesh of the lining.
D
(a)
(b)
(c)
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The whole geometry of the model and the adopted FE mesh are reported in Figure 1. As can be
observed, along tunnel longitudinal direction the mesh has been differently refined according to the
arranged excavation steps, which are hypothesised to stop at the middle section of the model. The
element length has been taken equal to 2 m except for the central part of the mesh where it has been
reduced to 1 m. In order to include large-displacement effects geometrical non-linearity has been
considered in all the analysis steps.
Two different FE analyses have been performed on the above described model. The first one
represents a step-by-step model simulating all the excavation phases and subsequent lining
installation. In the first step of this analysis all the elements representing preliminary and final
lining are deactivated and dead load is applied to the rock mass in order to represent the lithostatic
condition. From the second step on, the tunnel excavation starts from the end cross-section of the
model and the brick elements corresponding to the tunnel opening are progressively deactivated.
Preliminary lining elements are then correspondingly activated at 2 m distance from the excavation
face while final lining is activated at 8 m distance from the excavation face.
Subsequently, a FE analysis on the same model after the completion of the excavation process has
been carried out in order to better investigate the actual state of stress in final lining under service
conditions. For safety reasons the structural contribution of temporary lining has been omitted by
decaying its mechanical properties to the same values assumed for surrounding rock mass. Anyway,
this analysis should not be regarded as a long term one because the creep affecting both the rock
mass and the concrete lining as well as the shrinkage phenomenon have not be considered.

Modelling of preliminary and final lining
Preliminary lining has been modelled through a brick element layer by representing its constitutive
behaviour with a so-called concrete damaged plasticity model, which is available in ABAQUS FE
Code library. This model is able to represent the inelastic behaviour of concrete by assuming that
the main two failure mechanisms are tensile cracking and compressive crushing of the material.
Under uniaxial tension the stress-strain response follows a linear elastic relationship until the value
of the failure stress is reached. The failure stress corresponds to the onset of micro-cracking in the
concrete material. Beyond the failure stress a softening stress-strain response is assumed basing on
fracture mechanics concepts. Under uniaxial compression the response is linear until the value of
initial yield. In the plastic regime the response is typically characterized by stress hardening
followed by strain softening beyond the ultimate stress. This representation, although somewhat
simplified, captures the main features of the response of concrete (ABAQUS, 2008).
In the analysis representing the tunnel behaviour after the completion of the excavation process, the
temporary lining has been described by using the same elastic-plastic model adopted for the rock
mass.
Final lining has been modelled by adopting the 2D-PARC model (Cerioni et al. 2008) for
uncracked and cracked concrete elements reinforced both with ordinary steel bars and with steel
fibres and subjected to plane stresses. This model adopts a smeared fixed crack approach to describe
stress and strain fields and the evolution of the crack pattern until the failure of the element is
reached. The model is based on realistic semi-empirical constitutive laws for concrete, for
reinforcing steel or fibres and for their interaction at the crack. The model takes into account the
fundamental parameters influencing cracking, among which the stress field, the orientation and
spacing of the reinforcing steel bars (or content and aspect ratio of fibres), aggregate bridging,
aggregate interlock, degradation of concrete between cracks.

Numerical results
Figure 2 reports some results obtained from the step-by-step analysis when the excavation face is
placed at the middle of the model. As can be expected, final lining is not subjected to significant
stresses, since the greater part of the load is carried by temporary supports. At this stage, different
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kinds of reinforcements have then no influence on the structural response of permanent lining.
Current design practice which usually adopts plain concrete (except for the entrance to the tunnel or
in case of strong anisotropy of the rock mass) seems to be satisfactory, even if in the considered
model a small thickness for the concrete ring has been assumed (ITA Working Group, 1988,
AFTES, 2000, Lunardi, 2006).



Figure 2. Some numerical results obtained from the step-by-step analysis for the excavation face placed at
the middle of the model: (a) vertical displacements; (b) maximum principal stresses and (c) minimum
principal stresses distribution at the intrados of final lining.

In order to get more relevant results concerning final lining, another analysis has been carried out
representing the tunnel condition after the completion of the excavation process, with all the
assumptions already mentioned. Omitting the bearing contribution of temporary support, final
lining is consequently interested by a larger amount of stresses which also induce the crack pattern
reported in Figure 5. In this case, by comparing the numerical results obtained for fibre and ordinary
reinforced concrete lining some observations can be done. The stress distribution at intrados and
extrados surfaces, which is represented in Figures 3 and 4 (respectively referred to fibre and
ordinary reinforced lining), is quite independent from the type of reinforcement adopted. As can be
observed, the crown and the lateral sides of final lining are mainly interested by compressive
stresses, which are prevailing on bending moment effects. Low tensile stresses are present only at
the top of the crown at lining intrados, but they are not so relevant to induce crack formation. In the
invert arch, on the contrary, bending moments are more relevant, inducing larger tensile stresses
both at the intrados surface, in the central part of the arch, and at the extrados surface, near the
lower point at the connection between the two arches of the cross-section.
This stress distribution is the main cause of crack formation in the lining. Even if small cracks are
also present at the extrados surface of the lining, mainly near the angular point of the transversal
cross-section, the most significant cracks are located at the intrados. The crack pattern obtained
from the numerical analyses is reported in Figure 5 (a) and (b), respectively referred to a fibre and
an ordinary reinforced lining. As can be observed, the crack distribution is not influenced by the
type of adopted reinforcement, while the crack width assumes significant lower values when fibres
are used. This is mainly due to the homogeneous distribution of fibres and their random orientation
in the concrete matrix, which in turn determine a more uniform distribution of stresses in the
min[MPa]
max [MPa]
(a)
(b)
(c)
Uv [mm]
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structure. As a consequence, the presence of fibres improves the properties typically related to the
post-cracking behaviour, imparting ductility to an otherwise brittle material.


Figure 3. Numerical maximum principal stress distribution in the fibre reinforced concrete final lining after
the excavation process: (a) at the intrados; (b) at the extrados surface.


Figure 4. Numerical minimum principal stress distribution in the ordinary reinforced final lining after the
excavation process: (a) at the intrados; (b) at the extrados surface.


Figure 5. Numerical crack pattern at the intrados of final lining after the excavation process: (a) fibre
reinforced concrete lining; (b) ordinary reinforced concrete lining.

CONCLUSIONS
In this work, the behaviour of tunnel final lining realised with cast-in-place concrete has been
investigated through non-linear three-dimensional FE analyses.
In order to realistically describe the interaction among rock mass, temporary shotcrete lining and
final lining a step-by-step analysis has been first performed, simulating the real sequence of soil
excavation and support installation. As can be expected, during this stage the final lining is not
subjected to significant stresses, because the larger amount of loads is carried by temporary
supports. For this reason, another numerical analysis has been performed, by considering the final
situation of tunnel completely excavated and omitting the bearing contribution of temporary
supports, as it is usually hypothesized for safety in the design of the final lining. Numerical results
show that the final lining under serviceability conditions (own weight and interaction with the
surrounding rock mass) tends to crack, and so reinforcement may be necessary for crack control,
especially at invert arch and in the lower part of lateral sides. Even if crack distribution is not
significantly affected by the adopted type of reinforcement, fibres should be preferred to ordinary
steel bars (or eventually used in conjunction with them) because they improve the properties
typically related to the post-cracking behaviour, reducing crack opening and increasing ductility.
max [MPa] max [MPa]
min[MPa]
min[MPa]
(a) (b)
(a)
(b)
w [mm]
w [mm]
(a)
(b)
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Further developments of this work will also concern the long term behaviour of final lining, taking
into account creep and shrinkage phenomena.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research work was funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research within the
national Project Optimisation of structural, technological and functional performances of
construction methods and materials in tunnel lining. Authors gratefully acknowledge the qualified
contribution of Prof. Claudio Oggeri, whose support was instrumental in solving many modelling
problems, and Eng. Giorgia Copelli, for her help in the execution of numerical analyses.

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