Modelling of cast-in-place concrete tunnel liners condition

Abstract

Modelling the condition of highway tunnel liners helps to better understand the deterioration of tunnel liners and to more cost-effectively optimise the respective maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Previous research work has modelled the structural condition of concrete tunnel liners from the perspective of individual defects such as cracking or leakage. However, the overall structural condition of concrete tunnel liners, considering all relevant defects, has not yet been modelled. Most of the highway tunnels across the United States have been lined using the cast-in-place concrete method. As such, this research contributes to the body of knowledge through modelling the overall structural condition of cast-in-place concrete tunnel liners across the United States. A probabilistic model was designed, built, and validated to predict the deterioration of cast-in-place concrete tunnel liners. The deteriorated amount of tunnel liners was discretised into three condition states. The deterioration probability of tunnel liners was predicted using the ordered-probit analysis method. The developed model can help State Transportation Agencies across the U.S. empirically estimate the condition of cast-in-place concrete tunnel liners and effectively allocate their limited resources.

Keywords:

• Highway tunnels
• cast-in-place concrete liners
• structural condition
• deterioration
• probabilistic models
• ordered-probit models