Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 171183

www.elsevier.com/locate/compgeo

Three-dimensional modelling of tunnel excavation and lining

G. Galli *, A. Grimaldi, A. Leonardi
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Viale del politecnico n.1, Rome, Italy

Abstract
In this study, a 3D nite element model is applied to simulate the conventional procedure of tunnel excavation and lining. Both
shallow and deep tunnels are considered in soils modelled with MohrCoulomb elasto-plastic constitutive equation.
A polycentric tunnel cross-section with temporary lining and soil-nailing of the face excavation is studied.
The numerical results show the inuence of the soil properties and excavation procedures on face deformation and ground
settlements.
The model allows to evaluate the liningsoil interaction and the stress distribution in both the lining and the reinforcing
structural elements.

2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Tunnel design and construction sets relevant issues,
especially for shallow tunnels in urban environment.
The main problems are the evaluation and the control of
ground settlements, deformations and stability of the
excavation front, loads and stresses in the lining. A great
variety of excavation techniques has been developed
[13], which employ dierent methods to reinforce and
support the excavation front. It is therefore important to
evaluate and compare the eect of these methods.
Usually the excavation process is simulated step by
step with FEM modelling. The numerical modelling
often relies on a 2D analysis, implementing elastoplastic constitutive models, which are supposed to capture the limit-state behaviour of drained and undrained
soils. Complete reviews of numerical analyses of tunnels
have been presented in [4,5]. These reviews make it apparent how popular 2D modelling is with respect to 3D
modelling [6].
However, the use of 3D modelling is almost mandatory if one wants to correctly evaluate the eects of the
excavation process, so that 3D models are under continuous development, and are being applied to increasingly complex problems [7].
*

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Grimaldi@ing.uniroma2.it (A. Grimaldi).

0266-352X/$ - see front matter
2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2004.02.003

Specically, 3D schemes have been used to model

shallow excavations with TBM tunnelling, where the soil
has been modelled in order to simulate time-dependent
consolidation eects [9]. Three-dimensional analysis at
dierent stages of tunnel excavation has been developed,
for instance, in [10] for the Heathrow Express Trial
Tunnel (the rst tunnel excavated by the New Austrian
Tunnelling Method in the London Clay, with a polycentric section) and in [11] for the case of circular
shallow tunnels, where the eects of sub-horizontal
pipes and umbrella of pipes have been analysed, with
special attention to displacements at the excavation face.
In [12], excavation-induced displacements for shallow
tunnels in sandy soils have been analysed both with
experiments and with 3D numerical simulations.
Moreover, a 3D analysis for shallow tunnels is presented
in [13], which investigates K0 -inuence both on the initial deformation and on the lining stresses.
In this paper we are concerned with 3D analysis of
shallow and deep tunnels. More specically, we will
study a full-section-excavated tunnel with polycentric
section, the excavation process being performed with the
use of soil nails and temporary lining.
The MohrCoulomb elasto-plastic constitutive model
has been employed; this model is used to describe both
drained and undrained limit conditions. Simulations
have been implemented with the commercial nite elements code-LUSAS 13.5 [16].

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The main aim of the numerical investigations is to

evaluate:
1. Inuence of the protection measures (lining and face
reinforcing) on the ground settlements and face
deformations.
2. Soilstructure interaction and stresses in the lining
elements.
In the FEM simulation, standard eight-node volume
elements have been used. Therefore, limit conditions of
stability at the excavation face [14] and localized plastic
deformations are excluded (this case has been investigated, for instance, in [8]).
In the following, the modelling of the excavation and
lining phases is illustrated.
The results proposed are referred to various soil
mechanical properties and dierent procedures of excavation and lining with or without face-protective
measures.
Finally, a comparison with the simpler 2D model is
given [8,15].

2. Modelling of excavation and lining

Excavation and lining cases studied in this work are
referred to the highway and railway tunnel typologies,
with polycentric cross-section (surface 100150 m2 , diameter 1015 m), excavated with conventional methods
(open face, hand mined) and subsequent lining phases.
The rst numerical model refers to the shallow tunnel
case with cover height equal about the medium diameter
of the cross-section. A simple numerical procedure is developed, suitable to evaluate the excavation eects on the
ground settlements and on the stresses in temporary and
nal lining. The excavation procedure includes reinforcing elements at the excavation face to assure face stability.
The protective measures for the excavation face are
longitudinal bber-glass nails grouted in the tunnel face
and umbrellas of longitudinal bber-glass pipes (circular
crone with internal diameter 0.04 m and external diameter 0.06 m), designed to prevent localized break-ups
and front extrusion.

Cross section at the excavation face

1
Step 1

Longitudinal profile

1
Protective measures for
face stability

2
Step 2
2

3
3
Step 3

Temporary lining

4
4
Step 4

Step 5
5
5

Final concrete lining

6
Step 6
6
Fig. 1. Excavation and lining procedure (see Table 1).

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Table 1
Protective measures and lining elements
Excavation and lining procedure
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Umbrella of pipes
Soil nailing at face
Steel ring beam
Shotcrete support
Invert arch
Final concrete lining

The temporary lining is given by steel ring beams with

standard double-T section (two coupled IPE-180),
shotcrete support (thickness 0.3 m) and concrete invert
arch (thickness 0.8 m).
The arrangement of these elements in the typical
cross-section is illustrated in Fig. 1 and Table 1.

3. Three-dimensional nal element modelling

The 3D model of Fig. 2 shows a shallow tunnel case
with a polycentric section (D 11 m) assuming symmetric loading conditions.
Excavation and lining phases are simulated through
72 dierent analysis steps.
In the rst step, all the representative elements of the
lining and soil reinforcing are deactivated; in the second
step, the soil-weight is applied to the ground elements; in
the third step, the soil reinforcing elements of the front
(umbrella of pipes and soil nails at face) are activated
and tunnel excavation starts at the end cross-section of
the model.

173

In the subsequent phases, the tunnel excavation is

developed and the lining elements are activated (steel
beams, shotcrete support and invert arch).
The constitutive law used for the soil elements is the
elasto-plastic associated MohrCoulomb model with the
following material parameters: E 40; 000 kPa,
m 0:334, / 26 (friction angle), cohesion c 20 kPa,
density c 20 kN/m3 . The lining elements and the
protective measures are assumed to have a linearly
elastic behaviour.
The lining geometrical material parameters are given
in Table 2.
The excavation sequence are:
Construction of soil nails and umbrella of pipes.
Excavation of 1 m of soil and subsequent installation
of the temporary lining, which includes a steel ring
beam at 1 m distance from the excavation face, a
shotcrete support at 2 m distance from the excavation
face and an invert arch at a variable distance (416 m)
from the excavation face.
The numerical procedure simulates an excavation
starting from the end section of the soil model and
stops at the middle section. The excavation crosses 15
soil layers with dierent thicknesses. The element
thickness (1 m) in the central layers of the model is
reduced with respect to the mesh thickness (4 m) of
the lateral rst layers, in order to increase the numerical accuracy in the central part of the model,
where the simulation is assumed representative of the
actual excavation phase.
The details of the subsequent analysis steps (load
cases in Lusas 13.5) are as follows:

D
D

3D

70 m

4D

Fig. 2. Three-dimensional model.

Table 2
Lining elements and protective measure parameters
Lining material properties
Ring steel beams
Shotcrete support
Invert arch
Umbrella of pipes
Soil nails at face

E 2:1E 08 kPa, v 0:3

E 2:5E 07 kPa, v 0:1
E 2:85E 07 kPa, v 0:2
E 1:3E 07 kPa, v 0:3
E 1:5E 07 kPa, v 0:3

A 47:8 cm2 , l 2634 cm4 /m

Thickness 0.3 m
Thickness 0.8 m
Circular crown section 0.06/0.04 m
Circular crown section 0.06/0.04 m

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G. Galli et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 171183

Load case 1. Initialisation of the procedure: deactivation of all lining and reinforcing elements.
Load case 2. Soil weight; lithostatic condition.
Load case 3. Activation of the steel ring beams and
the shotcrete support elements (3D beams) located
in the rst soil layer. Activation of the soil pipes umbrella and soil nails at the face (3D-bars).
Load case 4. Deactivation of the soil elements included in the rst layer (release of 100% of the boundary nodal forces).
Load case 5. Activation of the steel ring beams and
the shotcrete support elements located on the second layer. Activation of the invert arch in the rst
layer.
Load case 6. Deactivation of the soil elements included in the second layer (release of 100% of the
boundary nodal forces).
The procedure (load cases 56) is repeated to simulate
the rst 20 m of tunnel excavation and lining.

In this rst part, the length of the excavation step is 4

m corresponding to the thickness of the soil elements
(load cases 713).
In the central part of the model the length of the
excavation step is reduced to 2 m between 20 and 30 m,
and to 1 m between 30 and 35 m (middle section of the
model). In this part of the excavation (2035 m), a more
precise lining procedure is adopted with the subsequent
activation of steel ring beams and shotcrete support
(load cases 1372).
We assume that nal concrete lining is placed at large
distance from the excavation face, hence it does not
appear in the numerical simulations.
3.1. Soil stresses and displacements
The results obtained from the 3D model are relative
to the nal situation after completing the excavation and
lining (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Stresses and displacement (excavation and lining completed, load case 72).

G. Galli et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 171183

In this example all the protective measures have been

considered. The numerical results show the spreading of
a plastic zone near the excavation face and under the
invert arch.
3.2. Stresses in lining
The numerical results show the interaction between
lining elements and surrounding soil, and allow to valuate the stress resultant in the steel ring beams (Fig. 4),
shotcrete support (Fig. 5) and invert arch (Fig. 6).
The small bending stiness of the ring steel beams
and shotcrete support implies that the stresses produced

175

by axial force are prevailing on the bending moment

eects. More precisely, the compression stress in the
steel beams is almost constant with the maximum value
r 142; 600 kPa. In the shotcrete, the maximum compression stress is r 2600 kPa. In the invert arch, both
axial force and bending moment are relevant, and the
maximum compression stress in the concrete is r 1800
kPa.
3.3. Soil nails
The model gives the distribution of the tensile axial
force in the nails at the excavation face (Fig. 7). The

Fig. 4. Stress resultants in the steel ring beams (double T section; A 47:8 cm2 /m, I 2634 cm4 /m).

Fig. 5. Stress resultants in the shotcrete support (1 m of lining, thickness 0.3 m).

Fig. 6. Stress resultants in the invert arch (1 m of lining, thickness 0.8 m).

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Face with soil nailing at face and construction of the

invert arch at 4 m distance from the excavation face.
Face without nails at face and construction of the invert arch at 4 m distance from the excavation face.
Face with soil nailing at face and construction of the
invert arch at 16 m distance from the excavation face.
The excavation face movements are plotted in Fig. 8.
These results show that face movements are reduced
by the soil nails at face (Fig. 8); the analysis shows also a

tensile force in the nails is extinguished at a distance of

about two diameters (D 11 m) from the excavation
front. The maximum tensile stress in the bber glass
nails is about r 17; 707 kPa.
3.4. Ground settlements and face deformation
The numerical simulation has been repeated for three
dierent procedures of excavation and lining:
300

Excavation face

N=278 kN

Axial Force in the soilnails (kN)

250

200

150

100

50

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Distance (m)
Fig. 7. Axial force in soil nails at face.

Fig. 8. Face movements.

Fig. 9. Settlements at the tunnel cross-section heading.

70

80

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177

Fig. 10. Heading displacements at the excavation face cross-section.

Fig. 11. Vertical displacements at ground surface.

reduction of the total displacements near the excavation

face. In Figs. 9 and 10, the eects of the excavation and
lining procedure on the tunnel heading settlements are
examined. The strong reduction of the settlements due
to soil nails and invert arch is emphasized.
The distribution of the ground settlements is given in
Fig. 11.

4. Inuence of soil parameters

With the subsequent model cases, the inuence of
dierent mechanical properties of the soil (Table 3),
corresponding to the MohrCoulomb criterion with
associated ow, has been analysed. Both a shallow
tunnel (Fig. 2) example (with an additional surface load
of 40 kN/m2 that simulates the inuence of a four-stories
building) and a deep tunnel example (Fig. 14) are examined.

Table 3
Mechanical properties of soil
Soil

E (kPa)

c (kPa)

u ()

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3

40,000
40,000
20,000

0.334
0.334
0.334

20
5
40

26
38
26

The excavation and lining procedures are the same

used for the rst model.
The numerical results for the shallow tunnel example
are given in Figs. 12 and 13, and Table 4.
The inuence of the soil mechanical properties on the
maximum values of the stress resultants in the lining
elements is shown in Table 4.
Similarly in Fig. 13, the inuence of soil parameters
on the settlements (at the heading and at the ground
surface), face displacements and on the maximum values
of the axial force in the soil nails at face is investigated.

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G. Galli et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 171183

Fig. 12. Stress and settlements in the model before excavation and lining procedure and after excavation and lining procedure (case 2).

The next example is a deep tunnelling excavation and

lining, corresponding to the three soil cases (Table 3) but
without the asymmetrical surface load in the previous
case.
The mesh is similar to that of the shallow case, but
the tunnel location is about 53 m below the soil plane
(Fig. 14).
The comparison of soil movements and stress in the
soil nails are reproduced in Fig. 15.
In these cases, the ground settlements are negligible.
The stress resultant in the lining elements are given in
Table 5.
The previous results have been obtained assuming the
simple MohrCoulomb model with associated ow. The
use of this criterion is diused in practice, and the corresponding nite element numerical iterative solution is
generally stable. Some numerical results using the nonassociated MohrCoulomb model are also shown in
Figs. 16 and 17, where the vertical displacements are
plotted corresponding to dierent values of the dilatancy
(Table 6).

The comparison shows the increment of the ground

settlements for the cases of non-associative ux.

5. Two-dimensional modelling
The most frequent modelling used for tunnelling excavation is the 2D nite element analysis [4].
In this case a soil layer, orthogonal to the tunnel and
suciently far from the excavation front, is considered
(Fig. 18). The excavation and lining phases are analysed
with subsequent load cases corresponding to deactivation of soil elements and activation of lining elements.
The nodal forces acting on the tunnel cross-section
boundary are gradually relaxed to simulate the interaction between the soil and the lining elements. However,
for the 2D model it is necessary to assume the fraction of
nodal forces release in the subsequent load cases.
On the contrary, the 3D model can automatically
simulate the real procedure of excavation and lining. A
comparison between 2D model predictions and the re-

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179

Fig. 13. Soil displacements and axial force in the soil nails.

Table 4
Axial force (kN) and bending moment (kN m) in the lining elements
Case

Steel ring
Nmax

Mmax

Nmax

Mmax

Nmax

Mmax

1
2
3

)634
)591
)354

)29
)28
)30

)188
)188
)208

)167
)151
)195

)509
)424
)358

)161
)163
)134

Shotcrete support

Fig. 14. Three-dimensioinal model of deep excavation.

Invert arch

sults of the corresponding 3D model can be useful to

dene the correct nodal forces release in 2D model.
This comparison has been developed for the shallow
tunnel case of Fig. 18.
The excavation and lining procedure (Fig. 18), is
simulated with nine load cases:
Load case 1. Deactivation of all beams elements.
Load case 2. Soil weight application.
Load case 3. Deactivation of ground elements and
relaxation of 30% of the nodal forces.
Load case 4. Activation of steel beams.
Load case 5. 20% further relaxation of the nodal
forces.
Load case 6. Activation of shotcrete support.

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Fig. 15. Soil displacements and axial force in the soil nails (deep excavation).
Table 5
Axial force (kN) and bending moment (kN m) in the lining elements (deep excavation)
Case

1
2
3

Steel ring

Shotcrete support

Invert arch

Nmax

Mmax

Nmax

Mmax

Nmax

Mmax

)447
)520
)745

)24
)33
)49

)172
)188
)208

)167
)151
)195

)509
)424
)358

)161
)163
)134

Fig. 16. Settlements at the tunnel cross-section heading.

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181

Fig. 17. Vertical displacements at ground surface.

Table 6
Mechanical properties of soil (dierent values of dilatancy)
Soil

w ()

c (kPa)

u ()

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3

26
12
6

20
20
20

26
26
26

~D
D

~3D

~4D
Fig. 18. Two-dimensional model, cross-section dimension.

Load case 7. 10% further relaxation of the nodal

forces.
Load case 8. Activation of concrete invert arch.
Load case 9. Relaxation of 40% of the nodal forces.
The 2D model results are given in Figs. 19 and 20,
and show that the stress and displacement distribution
in the soil is similar to the corresponding 3D distribution.
Specically, with the assumed sequence of nodal force
release, the settlement values at the tunnel cross-section
heading are almost coincident for 2D and 3D model.
In this sense the 3D and 2D model results can be
correlated.
However, the results of the 2D model generally
strongly dependent on the choice of the fraction of nodal forces release, as shown in Fig. 21, where the excavation and lining procedure, is simulated with the
following load cases:
Load case 1. Deactivation of all beams elements.
Load case 2. Soil weight application.
Load case 3. Deactivation of ground elements and
relaxation of 40% of the nodal forces.
Load case 4. Activation of steel beams.

Fig. 19. Stresses and displacement (excavation and lining completed, load case 9).

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G. Galli et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 31 (2004) 171183

Fig. 20. Heading displacements in 2D model.

Fig. 21. Heading displacements in 2D model, second procedure.

Load case 5. 30% further relaxation of the nodal

forces.
Load case 6. Activation of shotcrete support.
Load case 7. 20% further relaxation of the nodal
forces.
Load case 8. Activation of concrete invert arch.
Load case 9. Relaxation of 10% of the nodal forces.
This numerical simulation gives values of the settlements at the tunnel cross-section heading very dierent
with respect to the values of the 3D model.

6. Conclusions
The numerical investigation developed in this study
has shown the possibility to simulate the tunnelling excavation and lining phases using a standard FEM
commercial software.
The use of 3D models can be useful to analyse the real
sequence of soil excavation, face reinforcing and tunnel
lining.
The FEM technique of activation/deactivation of the
structural elements is helpful to develop a simple procedure for the excavation phases.
The numerical results show the eciency of 3D model
to analyse the face deformation and the ground settlements in the soil, and to evaluate the stress in the lining
elements in the subsequent construction phases.

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