| Abstract: | Numerous infrastructures including national roads, tunnels, etc. in Sichuan Province were damaged to various extents in China's Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. The Shaohuoping road tunnel, near the epicentre of the earthquake, was the typical damaged one. The damage modes of different parts of the Shaohuoping tunnel were summarised based on the spot investigation data. It was found that various damages involving cracking and spalling of concrete lining were observed on different parts of the tunnel. The earthquake damages of critical positions, portal section and body portion, were simulated and analysed by finite element numerical model proposed in this paper. Influences of vertical motion on seismic responses of the tunnel were also studied by means of the finite element simulation. The simulation responses were compared with the spot investigations of earthquake structural damages to different parts of the tunnel. The comparisons showed a good agreement, which indicated that, the damage mechanism of the tunnel can be predicted reliably by the proposed finite element model. Furthermore, the results show that the damage of different parts of the tunnel is mainly controlled by horizontal ground motions, but the tunnel may suffer more damages with the effect of the vertical motion. |
