Interaction of Excavated Tunnels by Earth Pressure Balance Machines (EPBMs) and Subsurface Obstacles, Case Study: Tehran Metro Line 7

Tunneling in urban areas has always encountered many uncertainties, which if not considered in both analysis and design of the tunnels, will cause unexpected events during tunnel construction. Obstacles are among the most remarkable uncertainties in tunneling that affect the tunnel construction process. The obstacles in urban tunneling include municipal utilities, surface and sub-surface structures, channels, wells, storages, and unknown cavities. Tehran Metro Line 7 in Iran is no exception to the rule, and has been grappling with the obstacles. In this work, we investigate the effect of the existence of wells and unknown cavities in the zone of influence of excavated tunnels by EPBM. The innovation of this research work is in the EPB tunnel design encountering wells and cavities that are as risky as the adjacent underground structure. In this work, we use a numerical simulation of the 3D finite difference method (FDM) so a series of parametric studies based on the numerical model are examined using the well and unknown cavity geometry and their location relative to the tunnel in alluvium. According to the results obtained, a major disturbance occurs in the near field of the well–tunnel, and the interaction problem happens in front of the tunnel face. The numerical outcome indicates that the most critical state of the ground settlement by EPBM happens when the well and unknown cavity are located in the face of the tunnel. It is also proved that the ground behavior is different for each part of EPBM such as ahead of the face, cutter head, shield, and segmental lining parts.