A New Kinematical Admissible Translational–Rotational Failure Mechanism Coupling with the Complex Variable Method for Stability Analyses of Saturated Shallow Square Tunnels

Tunnels are commonly constructed in water-bearing zones, which necessitates stability analyses of saturated tunnels based on the upper bound of the plastic theory. Previous kinematical approaches have the following drawbacks: (1) using an empirical approach to estimate pore-water pressure distributions; (2) using failure mechanisms that are not rigorously kinematically admissible. To overcome these shortcomings, we proposed a rigorously kinematically admissible translational–rotational failure mechanism for an underwater shallow square tunnel where velocity discontinuity surfaces were derived. Then, the pore-water pressure field surrounding the tunnel under the boundary of constant water pressure is analytically generated based on the complex variable method and imported into the kinematically admissible velocity field. Work rates performed by external forces and the internal dissipation rate are numerically computed to formulate the power balance equation, followed by a mixed optimization algorithm to capture the critical states of the surrounding soils of tunnels. The outcomes of pore-water pressure distributions, safety factors, and failure mechanisms are in tandem with those given by the numerical simulation but show higher computational efficiency than the numerical simulation. In the end, we highlight the advantages of the proposed model over the empirical approach, where soil properties and water table elevation effects are analyzed.

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