ABSTRACT
During the planning phase of tunneling projects, it is crucial to ensure that existing buildings are protected from damage when tunneling in urban environments. Tunneling inevitably causes ground movements whose impact on above-ground structures must be assessed. Various approaches that differ in precision and complexity may be employed to predict settlements, depending on the magnitude of expected settlements and the vulnerability of the structures with regard to tunneling induced damage. This contribution presents a three-step damage assessment concept adjustable to the level of detail necessary. First, ground movements are predicted using analytical or numerical approaches. Second, the above-ground structures are idealized by means of surrogate beam-, slab- or 3D-models. Lastly, structural damage is assessed according to strain information or tilt. This method enables the evaluation of the potential damage to above ground structures associated with various tunnel alignments during the planning phase. BIM concepts offer opportunities to streamline and simplify this process by using geometrical BIM sub-models as a basis for performing structural calculations. This paper aims to provide recommendations for a sufficient level of detail (LOD) of surface structures for the assessment of the induced damage in computational simulations of mechanized tunneling process.
