Upper bound limit analysis of blow-out failure mode of excavation face of shield tunnel considering groundwater seepage

The study of failure mode for the soil in front of a shield tunnel face is a key challenge for tunnel engineering, especially when drilling under the water table. This work aims to study face stability of a shield tunnel under the water table based on an blow-out failure mechanism in the framework of the upper bound theorem of limit analysis in conjunction with variational principle. The seepage force in the seepage field is derived, and seepage force is regarded as an external force which is introduced in the upper bound calculation. Based on the failure characteristic of the blow-out failure for the soil in front of a shield tunnel face, a upper bound failure mechanism is constructed. Using this mechanism, the equation of the failure surface is obtained and the shapes of the failure surfaces for different parameters are plotted. By studying the influence of various parameters on the shape of failure surfaces, the changing laws of the shape of the failure surface for different parameters are obtained.