Simulation of slurry shield behaviour during excavation at Ootsu tunnel

The kinematic shield model had been proposed in order to simulate the shield behaviour during excavation based on the equilibrium conditions, taking into account ground displacement around the shield. Based on the proposed model, the simulation of the slurry shield behaviour during excavation was carried out using the actual shield operational control data, of which were obtained at the curve alignment in the multilayer of the ground. Furthermore, the analysis results were compared with the observations in order to validate the model performance. As a result, it was found that the model simulates the observed shield behaviour reasonably well. The result also indicates that the excavated area including the area generated by the copy cutter is a predominant factor affecting shield behaviour during shield tunnel excavation.