Comparison of analytical method, 3D finite element model with experimental subsidence measurements resulting from the extension of the Milan underground

The construction of shallow tunnels induces a state of strain in the soil around the excavation that could cause damaging differential displacements in existing structures near the tunnel. In the last decades several empirical, analytical and numerical approaches have been presented by different authors in the scientific literature with a purpose toward estimating maximum surface displacements along the tunnel axis and the surface-area extension affected by deformation phenomena. This paper reports the results of a study carried out to estimate the values of the surface settlements induced by the excavation (with an EPB-S shield machine) of the new extension of line 1 of the Metropolitana Milanese, constructed in an alluvial sandy area of the Padana Plain. In particular, the purpose of this study has been to compare the vertical surface displacements monitored during the advancing excavation to the settlements estimated by using analytical and empirical formulations and by setting up a three-dimensional finite element model that could simulate, step by step, the different tunnel excavation and supporting phases.