Shaking Table Test Study on Flexible and Rigid Immersed Tube Tunnel in Liquefiable Soil Layer

To study the seismic response law of the immersed tunnel under different structural stiffnesses, three groups of shaking table models of immersed tunnel are carried out, including free-field model, flexible tunnel model, and rigid tunnel model. The similarities and differences of the pore water pressure and acceleration time-history between the free site and liquefiable soil layer around the flexible and rigid immersed tube tunnel are analyzed. The results show that, compared with the soil layer at the same position in the free-field, both the amplitude of acceleration and frequency component in the surrounding soil layer are affected by the stiffness of tunnel, and the influence comes greater with the larger stiffness of tunnel. When the input amplitude of seismic ground motion is small, the soil layer in the free field and the flexible tunnels share the same acceleration amplification law. The development law of pore pressure in the soil layer of test 1 was similar to test 2 but was quite different from test 3. Specifically, when the tunnel stiffness is smaller, the surrounding soil layer is easier to liquefy, with greater influence of the tunnel stiffness on the development law of pore pressure in the surrounding soil layer. The lower the soil buried depth is, the faster the pore pressure dissipates. The growth rate of tunnel strain is related to the stiffness of the structure. Generally speaking, the strain growth rate of the structure with smaller stiffness is higher under moderate earthquakes. The smaller the tunnel stiffness is, the more adaptable the tunnel is to the movement of the surrounding soil layer.