Determination of tunnel face stabilizing pressure using numerical and analytical methods

One of the important tasks in mechanized tunneling using tunnel boring machines is to determine the required face pressure ensuring its stabilization. For the solution of this task various methods can be used. Analytical calculations to determine the required stabilizing face pressure are mainly based on limit equilibrium methods and plasticity theory. Although numerical methods (finite element method, etc.) to determine the tunnel face pressure facilitate the modelling of this problem with more general calculation assumptions (inhomogeneous environment, etc.) as compared with the above analytical methods, the creation of the model and the actual calculation are more time consuming. The paper presents the comparison of face pressure values obtained from analytical models of different authors, and from the numerical model. The paper concludes by presenting the resulting comparative charts for various computational methods and an analysis of obtained results.