Impact of Tunnel Temperature Variations on Surrounding Rocks in Cold Regions

Abstract

Temperature is an important factor in designing and maintaining tunnels, especially in cold regions. We present three-dimensional numerical simulations of tunnel temperature fields at different temperature conditions. We study the tunnel temperature field in two different conditions with relatively low and high ambient temperatures representing winter and summer of northeast China. We specifically study how these temperature conditions affect tunnel temperature and its migration to surrounding rocks. We show how placing an insulation layer could affect the temperature distribution within and around tunnels. Our results show that the temperature field without using an insulation layer is closer to the air temperature in the tunnel, and that the insulation layer has shielding effects and could plays an important role in preventing temperature migration to surrounding rocks. We further analyzed how thermal conductivity and thickness of insulation layer control the temperature distribution. The thermal conductivity and thickness of insulation layer only affect the temperature of the surrounding rocks which are located at distances below ~20 m from the lining.