Tunnelling-induced deformation and damage on framed structures with masonry infills

The expansion of cities often involves tunnel construction, which may result in detrimental effects on structures.This research describes a numerical approach aimed at investigating the interaction between tunnelling-induced ground deformations and framed buildings with masonry infills. This study includes experimental data obtained from geotechnical centrifuge tests and predictions of building response based on numerical analyses. The numerical model, analysed with the Finite Element method, includes the soil, the tunnel, and the framed structure with infills. It proved its capability in reproducing the soil response at different values of the volume loss and the principal soil-structure interaction mechanisms, including sliding and development of a gap at the soil-foundation interface. In addition, a large number of framed building models were simulated to investigate the effects of volume loss of the tunnel, presence of masonry infills, opening of infills, eccentricity, and dimensions of the building. The results are summarised in terms of angular distortion values for each bay as well as local tensile strains in the masonry infills. Moreover, the efficiency of angular distortion models in predicting the maximum tensile strain of the infills is also evaluated. Finally, the maximum tensile strains of infills are used to evaluate the building deformation based on the damage classifications.