Numerical Study of the Effect of Grout Material Properties on Ground Deformation during Shallow TBM Tunneling

The full-face shield tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been widely used to build tunnels in urban area. Ground deformations usually occur during tunnelling processes, which is closely related to engineering geological property. A large ground deformation may lead to large-scale surface settlement or ground collapse, especially for shallow buried tunnels. In general, synchronous grouting is adopted to reduce the ground deformation. The temporal and spatial distribution of the grout pressure and consolidation processes of grouting have a significant influence on the deformation. For a better understanding the relationship between the grout material type and the ground deformation, the present study models a complex numerical model in FLAC3D based on the Guangzhou Metro line 18. A numerical method is proposed to reproduce the tunnelling process and the consolidation process of grout material. The effect of grouting material on ground deformation is discussed, i.e., immediately solidified type, quick hardening type, and good mobility type. The ground deformation of the numerical simulation are compared to those monitored in the field. The results indicate that the immediately solidified type grout can reduce the ground settlement effectively and is mainly applicable to secondary grouting. The quick hardening type can make the ground upheaval, which is smaller than that induced by immediately solidified type. The good mobility type can reduce the ground settlement and well control the ground deformation. The good mobility type recommends using in the numerical study for simulating the synchronous grouting.