Dynamic Behaviors of a Curved Steel Tunnel Lining with Various Curvatures under Wind Loads due to Consecutive Passing Vehicles

Dynamic behaviors of the steel lining of curved tunnels with various curvatures are throughly examined to see the effect of wind loads due to consecutively passing vehicles. The wind pressure upon the lining is simplified into the pressure and suction while the vehicles are passing the specific positions. Results from cases of sole driving and consecutive driving conditions for both curved and straight tunnels are compared. It is found that the maximum displacements occur at middle location of the tunnel, and that the responses from consecutive passing vehicles increase compared to those from the single vehicle conditions for all tunnels. It is also found that the responses increase at the higher speed of passing vehicles while the responses decrease as the curvatures increase. In the case when the consecutive vehicles go at the high speeds, the increments of the responses become hardly noticeable compared to those from single passing vehicle conditions since the safety distance are getting long enough to eliminate the effect of wind load from the following vehicles.