Collapse analysis of shallow tunnel subjected to seepage in layered soils considering joined effects of settlement and dilation

The stability prediction of shallow buried tunnels is one of the most difficult tasks in civil engineering. The aim of this work is to predict the state of collapse in shallow tunnel in layered soils by employing non-associated flow rule and nonlinear failure criterion within the framework of upper bound theorem. Particular emphasis is first given to consider the effects of dilation on the collapse mechanism of shallow tunnel. Furthermore, the seepage forces and surface settlement are considered to analyze the influence of different dilation coefficients on the collapse shape. Two different curve functions which describe two different soil layers are obtained by virtual work equations under the variational principle. The distinct characteristics of falling blocks up and down the water level are discussed in the present work. According to the numerical results, the potential collapse range decreases with the increase of the dilation coefficient. In layered soils, both of the single layer's dilation coefficient and two layers' dilation coefficients increase, the range of the potential collapse block reduces.