A complex variable solution for stress and displacement field around a lined circular tunnel at great depth

Abstract By applying the series expansion technique in the complex variable method established by Muskhelishvili, the plane elasticity problem for the stress and displacement field around a lined circular tunnel in conjunction with the consideration of misfit and interaction between the liner and the surrounding geomaterial is dealt with. The tunnel is assumed to be driven in a homogeneous and isotropic geomaterial. The coefficients in the Laurent series expansion of the stress functions are determined. The complex potentials in the liner and the surrounding geomaterial are explicitly derived, respectively. As an example, the case of a lined circular tunnel located in an isotropic initial stress field but subjected to uniform internal pressure is numerically considered. Numerical results indicate that the installation of tunnel liner can reduce the influences of the tunnel excavation on the in situ displacement and stress fields. However, the relative thickness and rigidity of the liner should be in an appropriate range. In addition, the effect of the tunnel excavation upon the displacement field is more significant than that upon the stress field. As far as the stress field in the surrounding geomaterial is concerned, when the ratio between the cover depth of tunnel and the tunnel radius is larger than 5, the results for the stress field in the paper are applicable. When the ratio between the tunnel depth and the tunnel radius is larger than 20, the results are applicable for the displacement field. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.