Long-term settlement behavior of ground around shield tunnel due to leakage of water in soft deposit of Shanghai

The lining of shield tunnel is usually composed of segments, in which the joints, cracks, and the grouting holes (hereafter called lining deficit) exist. During the long-term running, soils and groundwater may leak from these kinds of lining deficit. The leaking of soil and groundwater causes the long-term ground loss around tunnel and thus results in the settlement of ground surface. This paper aims to analyze the impact of the leakage of groundwater through segments on the long-term settlement of ground surface. The adopted analytical method is based on the theory of groundwater seepage by using numerical simulation. The analyzed results show that settlement of ground surface increases gradually with the increase of the leaked volume of tunnel segments. When the leaked volume was unevenly distributed, differential settlement occurred locally. Comparative analysis by changing the leaked volume was conducted. The results reveal that there is a linear relationship between settlement and leaked volume when the leaked volume was controlled within the allowable limit.