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Key techniques in cross passage construction of Shanghai

Yangtze River Tunnel by artificial ground freezing method

Conference Paper · April 2008

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 The Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel - Theory, Design and Construction – Huang (ed)
© 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-47161-9

Key techniques in cross passage construction of Shanghai Yangtze River

Tunnel by artificial ground freezing method

Z.H. Huang
Shanghai Changjiang Tunnel & Bridge Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai, P. R. China

X.D. Hu
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, P. R. China
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai,
P. R. China

J.Y. Wang
Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co., Ltd., Shanghai, P. R. China

H.B. Lin
Nanjing Design & Research Institute, Sino-coal International Engineering Group, Nanjing, P. R. China

R.Z. Yu
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, P. R. China
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai,
P. R. China

ABSTRACT: This paper gives a brief introduction of cross passage construction of Shanghai Yangtze River
Tunnel by artificial ground freezing method and reports on the design of frozen soil curtain and construction plan.
Given the unfavorable conditions, many methods are adopted to control the great risk factors during the construc-
tion. Key techniques such as drilling of freezing holes, protection of segment opening, thermal insulation of frozen
soil curtain and construction monitoring are prudently adopted, which are emphatically introduced in this paper.

1 INTRODUCTION The cross passages each bears circular section. The

Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel, situated at the estuary
of Yangtze River and crossing the south branch of it,
is part of the planning National Coastal Expressway.
Each of the two circular tunnels bears an external diam-
eter of 15 m and internal 13.7 m. The construction is
being carried out by
15.43 m air pressed slurry shield
machine with the digging distance of 7.5 km. In each
direction, the tunneling space is vertically divided into
two parts, of which the upper part serves as a three-
lane highway tunnel and the lower part functions as
subway tunnel.
Taking into consideration the evacuation and rescue
assistance in emergency and technical service in nor-
mal state, every eight hundred meters, approximately,
should a cross passage be built to connect the two
main tunnels, thus eight cross passages are to be built
altogether. Figure 1 presents the general layout.
structure form of the cross passages and their relative
position to main tunnels are shown in Figure 2.
The construction of the cross passages are facil-
itated by Artificial Ground Freezing Method (i.e.
Freezing Method in short) to provide soil reinforce-
ment. Mining Method is adopted in excavation and
cast-in-place concrete serves as the permanent lining
structure for the cross passages.
The construction takes place below Yangtze River,
thus the great technical difficulties and construction
risk. The digging of the cross passages mainly encoun-
ters soil layers of [5]1 , [5]2 , [5]3 , and [5]3t , (see
Table 1). Among the involved soil layers mentioned
above, [5]2 and [5]3t are silty soil which, under cer-
tain hydrodynamic pressure, are very likely to be the
hotbed of geological hazards such as flowing sand
and piping; while [5]3 layer bears an unevenly dis-
tributed quality of soil because of seam and lumped

205
Figure 1. Layout of the cross passages of Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel.

Figure 2. Structural drawing of the cross passages of Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel.

Table 1. General situation of cross passages of Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel.

Passage Number of Elevation of Soil layers Distance between the bottom of passage
name mile post passage centerline encountered and underlying confined aquifer

1# SDK1 + 282.494 −32.985 m [5]2 0.0

2# SDK2 + 112.494 −39.246 m [5]2 , [5]3 0.0 − 14.1
3# SDK2 + 942.492 −38.355 m [5]3 8.7 − 10.7
4# SDK3 + 772.478 −35.343 m [5]3 17.2 − 17.9
5# SDK4 + 602.486 −32.332 m [5]3 16.5 − 20.5
6# SDK5 + 432.499 −29.404 m [5]1 , [5]3 , [5]3t 12.8 − 23.4
7# SDK6 + 262.499 −34.351 m [5]3 , [5]3t 5.5 − 17.1
8# SDK7 + 092.499 −35.820 m [5]1 , [5]3 , [5]3t 17.3 − 18.8

slity sand embedment; also, confined ground water or
semi-confined water exist in layer [5]2 and layer [7]
(which lies below the cross passages). Given the poor
geological conditions, freezing strength and freezing
range at the excavation area and its vicinity must be
prudently controlled to resist the pressure of confined
water throughout the construction process, thus ensure
the favorable proceeding of the engineering.
2 DESIGN OF FROZEN SOIL CURTAIN
Taking reference from similar engineering experience
based on the position and embedded depth of the cross
passages, the thickness of the frozen soil curtain is
preliminarily designed to be 2.7 m (2.4 m at the “bell
mouth”, see Figure 2) and average temperature of the
curtain is set as no higher than −13◦ C. Two circles of

206

Figure 3. Temperature field of soil after 40 days of active
freezing period.
Figure 4. σ 1 distribution of the frozen soil curtain.
40 freezing tubes (22 for inner circle and 18 for outer
circle), are designed to form the ice-wall. Drilling of
the inner circle and outer circle of the freezing holes
are carried out from up line and down line main tun-
nels respectively. The drilling ends when meeting the
segment lining of the opposite tunnel.
Numerical analysis of the freezing process has been
applied in accordance with the designed layout of
freezing-tubes. The result shows that, after 40 days
of active freezing period, the effective thickness of the
frozen soil curtain reaches 2.53 m at the “bell mouth”
(after excavation) and 2.84 m in the middle part while
the average temperature within the range of effec-
tive thickness falls to −16.8◦ C in the middle part and
−17.5◦ C at the “bell mouth”. (Refer to Figure 3).
Bearing capacity of the frozen soil curtain has been
checked by means of three-dimensional numerical cal-
culation. It turns out that the ice-wall stands stable at
the water and earth pressure, with the safety factor
for compressive strength no less than 2.0, for bending
strength no less than 3.0 and for shear strength 2.0.
207
GroundSegment Flaned casing-stub
Gate valve (spherical)
Freeze-tube
Bleed valve
Figure 5. Blow-out preventer
3 KEY TECHNIQUES IN FREEZING METHOD
From the perspective of guaranteeing construction
safety, key techniques in construction of cross pas-
sages by freezing method lies in how to control the
most important risk factors. These construction haz-
ards include water spewing or sandblasting when
drilling freezing holes, excessive deformation or desta-
bilization of the tunnel structure when opening the
segment lining at connection, and deterioration of the
frozen soil curtain or even water inrush during exca-
vation. Concerning these hidden dangers, some key
techniques are adopted as introduced below.
3.1 Drilling of freezehole
During the process of drilling freezing holes from main
tunnel to the outside, water spewing and sandblasting
are likely to occur, which may lead to excessive ground
loss following by destabilization of lining structure.
The main reason of such fault lies in ground loss with
slurry circulation of drilling or invalidation of blow-
out preventer at the opening.
In order to guarantee drilling safety, reliable blow-
out preventer should be applied to reduce the risk of
water spewing and sandblasting. Figure 5 illustrates
the structure of a blow-out preventer.
3.2 Protection of segment
During the excavation of cross passage, part of the
segment lining of the main tunnel has to be removed,
render the ring structure of lining in a disintegrated
state, thus the considerable stress concentration at the
opening, which may cause excessive deformation or
even destabilization of lining structure. Steel rein-
forcement is fixed around the opening as a protection
device to prevent lining from excessive deformation
(Fig. 6).
Figure 6. Protection device for segment.
3.3 Protective door
Many factors may cause failure of frozen soil curtain,
such as geometric imperfection and physical defect of
the curtain, error judgment of the characteristics of the
frozen soil curtain and improper construction manage-
ment. In case of uncontrollable water inrush due to fail-
ure of the frozen soil curtain, pre-installed protective
door can block the path of intruding water to the inside,
thus protects the main tunnel and minimizes the loss.
For the convenience of emergency shut-down, the
protective door adopted up-down rotating shutting
system; in normal state, the protective door is open
upwardly and fixed (Fig. 6).
3.4 Thermal insulation
Ventilation in the main tunnel may take away the cold-
ness of the frozen soil near segment lining with the
existence of concrete thermoconductivity and reduce
the refrigerative effect, which may lead to the prob-
lem that the frozen soil does not adfreeze to the outer
surface of the segment. In that case, severe water
inrush accident can possibly take place during exca-
vation. Given the exceptionally large tunnel section in
this project, such kind of risk is greatly increased. In
order to achieve a sound adfrozen state between seg-
ment and frozen soil, surface freezing-tubes are set
lying along the inner side of the segment to reduce
208
the temperature of segment, thus weaken the influ-
ence of heat exchange caused by ventilation. Surface
freezing-tubes are located around the opening and
appressed on the inner surface of the segment, cov-
ering the area larger than designed range of the frozen
soil curtain. Brine circulation in these freezing-tubes is
the same as that for the normal freezing-tubes (working
in soil). Meanwhile, these surface freezing-tubes are
covered with foamed soft polyurethane sheets and fur-
ther clothed by a layer of sprayed foamed polyurethane
to form a sound thermal insulation. Figure 7 presents
the general layout of the surface thermal insulation.
3.5 Construction monitoring
During the process of freezing, excavation and defrost-
ing, characteristics of the frozen soil curtain are con-
stantly changing. Therefore Freezing Method must
be accompanied with construction informationiza-
tion. A comprehensive monitoring must be adopted to
achieve the information of the frozen soil curtain and
excavation situation at different stages of construction,
especially the information on deterioration of the cur-
tain during time of excavation. Besides, items must be
monitored also include parameters on the operation
of refrigeration system (esp. the temperature of the
brine circulation and the temperature different between
delivery and return of brine) together with the load and
deformation of the structure (main tunnels and cross
Figure 7. General layout of the surface thermal insulation for segment.
passages). Remote monitoring system is established
to fulfill the informationization of the construction of
cross passages of Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel.
3.5.1 Major monitoring items and methods
3.5.1.1 Soil temperature
Strength of the frozen soil depends on the tempera-
ture, while the thickness and shape of the frozen soil
curtain also revealed by soil temperature. Therefore,
the monitoring of characteristics of the frozen soil
curtain mainly comes down to the monitoring of soil
temperature.
Soil temperature is measured by temperature sen-
sors embedded into pre-drilled temperature holes in
involved soil layers. The measuring devices are made
of digital temperature sensors sealed into thermomet-
ric electronic cable, which connect with bus network
and further to the computer terminal.
Seven temperature holes are set for cross passage
#1, namely C1 to C7 respectively (Fig. 8). The arrange-
ment of these temperature holes are designed to take
the responsibility of monitoring during all freezing,
excavation and defrosting period.
Besides, temperature sensors are also mounted on
the stress sensors for the cross passage structure, such
as earth pressure cells and steel meters. These tem-
perature sensors serve as accessorial measurement
during defrosting and when analyzing the influence of
hydration heat of concrete on the frozen soil curtain.
3.5.1.2 Brine temperature
The temperature different between delivery and return
of brine indicates the heat exchange between freezing
system and soil layers, as well as operation state of
the refrigeration system. More importantly, abnormal
value of the temperature drop between delivery and
return of brine can be quite an immediate warning
of the malfunction brine circuit, thus guarantee the
designed freezing process.
209
Digital temperature sensors are also adopted here
and packed into stainless steel shells which are suitable
fro the installation in brine tubes. Signals are trans-
mitted to the computer terminal by connections of bus
network and lead wires.
The sensors are mounted in brine mains and every
set of circuit that has a series connected refrigerator
to measure the temperature of brine main and these
circuits.
3.5.1.3 External and internal force of the structure
of cross passages
Stress sensors are used to observe the load and defor-
mation of the cross passage structure after construc-
tion. Earth pressure cells are placed at the outer surface
of the cross passage structure (i.e. interface of the
passage and the soil layer); while steel meters are
embedded into the concrete structure. For each cross
passage, monitored sections are located at the middle
of the length of the passage and its connection with
two main tunnels.
3.5.1.4 Others
Many other items are monitored during the construc-
tion, such as parameters of the freezing system, brine
flow, temperature of frozen soil at the excavation face
and convergence of the passage.
3.5.2 Monitoring system
Remote monitoring system for informationized con-
struction by freezing method is established to carry out
the monitoring of freezing system, brine temperature
and soil temperature. The layout of the temperature
sensors employs 1-wire Bus network, in which sen-
sor bus gain access of data transmitting module and
then connect to the host computer through RS485 bus.
Given the considerable distribution distance of the
eight cross passages, RS485 signals are transmitted
by optical fiber.
Figure 8. Layout of temperature holes (cross passage #1).
4 CONCLUSION
Construction of cross passage of shield driven tunnel
is a task with high risk, and engineering under river
bottom is even more hazardous. Reliable construc-
tion techniques must be prudently employed aiming
at every of the risk factors to guarantee engineering
security.
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