Jointed Pipe–Soil Interaction due to Tunneling

Abstract Despite the convenience of tunnels for transportation in modern cities, ground movements induced by tunneling may cause pipeline deformations. One of the key challenges is the higher failure potential in the location of joints on jointed pipelines. This study presented a closed-form solution based on the Winkler model to explore the effects of joints on pipe–soil interaction due to tunneling-induced deformations. Finite-element simulations were used to verify the closed-form solutions and a design chart was proposed based on the governing equations to facilitate the estimation of pipeline responses to tunneling-induced ground movements. Generally, good agreements have been obtained between the results of the closed-form solution and the finite-element models. In addition, the findings suggested that the calculated tunneling-induced pipeline deformations may be significantly underestimated if the effect of joints is not considered.