Preliminary assessment of the correlation between three-dimensional topography and lining forces induced by earthquakes on shallow tunnels

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4. Preliminary assessment of the correlation between three-dimensional topography and lining forces induced by earthquakes on shallow tunnels

Recent seismic-induced damage of tunnels has enlightened the importance of seismic risk assessment for underground structures. In particular, the analysis of shallow tunnels crossing landslide prone areas and covered by uneven topography should require the use of advanced three-dimensional modelling to predict the dynamic soil-structure-interaction phenomena. This paper describes a numerical approach to study the seismic vulnerability of tunnels crossing areas characterised by complex topographic conditions in the southern Apennines (Italy). The Alvaro tunnel located in Ferrandina (PZ) is selected as case study. The area is characterised by high reference seismic hazard and a tunnel cover ranging between 2 and 40 m. From the same digital terrain model, two three-dimensional CAD models are generated, capable of catching local topographic conditions with different accuracy. A finite element approach is adopted to simulate the dynamic soil-tunnel interaction using a non-linear soil constitutive model. In general, the higher is the accuracy of the modelled topography and the higher are the lining normal forces in the longitudinal direction, while their trend against the slope to cover ratio predicted by the coarse model, both along the longitudinal and the transverse direction, is consistent with that from the refined model.

10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)

4. Geotechnical earthquake engineering