International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
Abstract
Shafts can have multiple uses including providing the access to underground-level tunnels or forming new sections of permanent works. The construction process often used to create the connection between a shaft and a tunnel is known as “shaft breakout”. This construction process involves the formation of an opening, disturbing the loading and supporting equilibrium of the shaft. Currently, there is limited published knowledge about the behaviour of the shaft lining and the ground adjacent to the opening during the breakout. This results in conservative design approaches and substantial temporary works. Insight into this complex underground construction process can be obtained by using geotechnical centrifuge modelling techniques. This paper details the design of a novel shaft breakout model that will be used to provide data on the short-term structural behaviour of a shaft during the formation of an opening in a parametric study. The model will consist of a preformed instrumented circular liner with a removable opening that will be situated within a Speswhite kaolin clay sample
