Last month, a paper written by Chara Kalogeraki and Dr. Angelos Gakis of Dr. Sauer & Partners and Dr. Panagiotis Spyridis from the Technical University of Dortmund (previously Dr. Sauer & Partners) was presented during the 16th International Probabilistic Workshop (IPW) in Vienna.
The International Probabilistic Workshops are annual workshops established in 2003 which offer a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of knowledge and expertise, in probabilistic methods, uncertainty quantification, safety and risk management focused for engineering purposes. This year’s IPW was organised by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) and was attended by both academia and industry partners.
The title of the paper presented is “Design optimisation of tunnel profiles and lining support based on probabilistic finite element analyses” and discusses an innovative approach in assessing and quantifying the robustness of different sprayed concrete lining tunnel shapes under given uncertainty and spatial variability of the geotechnical and concrete parameters along the tunnel alignment. The size and shape selection of a tunnel cross-section is driven by several factors, with a leading factor being the function of the tunnel and the associated required space, geotechnical conditions, available construction methods etc. This selection, which often entails unavoidable compromises, has a significant impact on the robustness and structural efficiency of the tunnel lining, but the common practice lacks the ability to precisely quantify this impact. The paper investigates and quantifies this impact using sophisticated probabilistic non-linear finite element analyses.
An extended abstract of the paper was published in the 6th International Probabilistic Workshop, Beton- und Stahlbetonbau Spezial, Volume 113 (2018), Issue 9, Supplement September and the full paper is available online by the Wiley Online Library (WOL).
