Evaluation of physical testing for seismic behaviour of tunnels: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Underground structures are nowadays quite popular for urban construction. Since it is very difficult to begin post-damage construction immediately, the correct evaluation of its response during any seismic activity is an important factor for the analysis. Various physical models and numerical and analytical methods are recently introduced to study earthquake waves' effects on underground structures. This paper presents a brief review of the experimental tests, i.e., the Centrifuge test and Shake table test, used to analyze the performance of tunnels under a seismic environment with due consideration of the failure of the underground structure due to ground failure and ground shaking conditions. Besides this, the seismic behaviour of tunnels, factors influencing the behavior of tunnel structure and its failure patterns are also discussed. Subsequently, overall gaps in the study have been mentioned with the current understanding for its analysis.