Safety evaluation of urban underground utility tunnel with the grey clustering method based on the whole life cycle theory

Abstract

The construction of urban underground utility tunnel is a complicated process. With the rapid development of urbanization in China, the safety problem of utility tunnel is becoming more and more prominent. To evaluate the safety of utility tunnel, this study proposed an evaluation model based on the whole life cycle theory. Firstly, combining with the characteristics of utility tunnel, the construction period was divided into four phases: preliminary planning, design, construction and operation and maintenance. Through literature analysis and expert investigation method, 26 evaluation indices were selected, and the whole life cycle safety evaluation index system of urban underground utility tunnel was established; Secondly, the entropy weight method was used to determine the weight of each index; Thirdly, in order to evaluate the security of the utility tunnel in the whole life cycle, a grey clustering evaluation model was constructed. Finally, a case study was conducted to explain the application of the proposed model and to verify the validity of the model, the results indicated that the model could provide a new way to evaluate the safety state of the utility tunnel project.