Development of a ground reaction curve for shield tunnelling

The change of ground deformation is the main cause of earth pressure change around shield periphery during excavation. The ground deformation can be calculated based on shield behaviour and excavation condition. The earth pressure acting on the shield periphery caused by ground displacement could be estimated by applying the ground reaction curve. The ground reaction curve, which is the relationship between the ground deformation and the earth pressure, was developed based on 2-D finite element analysis of shield tunnelling. The reasonable agreement of earth pressure acting on shield between the proposed ground reaction curve and the observation data was reported. This agreement for the earth pressure acting on shield suggested that the proposed ground reaction curve could be applied to the shield behaviour model and the segment design.