Newton Fund - Shaking Tunnel Vision

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Hydropower, Large hydropower (capacity of 10 MW and above))
Not Energy Related
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr R Fuentes
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 February 2016

08 May 2018

27 months

£253,758

Geosciences

London

Newton Programme

Dr R Fuentes, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London

Mr P Alcaino, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile
Professor I Anastasopoulos, Civil Engineering, University of Dundee
Dr M Brown, Civil Engineering, University of Dundee
Dr S Fingerhuth, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile
Dr JA Knappett, Civil Engineering, University of Dundee
Dr D McLernon, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds
Dr N Nikitas, Civil Engineering, University of Leeds
Dr A Peña Fritz, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile
Ms P Rodriguez, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile

Project Contact, EcoCentric, India
Project Contact, Metro de Santiago, Chile

Vision - In Shaking Tunnel Vision we want to develop novel disaster management strategies for tunnels under repeated seismic loading through innovative monitoring and analysis of a new World Class Case Study.SummaryTunnels are one of cities' and nations' critical lifelines in the modern World, transporting people, water, electricity, minerals and energy. They are an essential part of the infrastructure that serves people and therefore, are critical to their wealth and well-being. The impacts of global urbanisation and Climate Change are forcing nations to look towards underground space for their future infrastructure. Internationally, tunnel construction is increasing and Chile is no exception. Multiple tunnelling projects are in the country's pipeline or being currently designed and / or built (e.g. the Andean tunnel to connect Argentina and Chile, multiple underground mine tunnels, like the 1,000 km projected in the Chuquicamata mine and Hydraulic power plants, to name but a few).Their behaviour under repeated seismic loading is not precisely understood and therefore, current designs and disaster risk management strategies could be greatly improved. This is, partly, due to the lack of performance data from real tunnels. Accidents are rare but they do occur, and when they do, have significant consequences (e.g. the Pedro Galleguillos tunnel in Tocopilla, 2007). The purpose of this project is to design and install a monitoring system in ttwo tunnels (La Polvora, Valparaiso, and Metro Santiago) with the intention of: (1) fundamentally (re-)defining our understanding of the behaviour of tunnels under repeated seismic loading; (2) developing an engineering-risk-based disaster management approach for tunnels in seismic areas; (3) creating a case study that will become an internationally recognised reference and will be used widely in years to come for the validation of future improved numerical and analytical design approaches

25/08/16