Title: RIGIDITY REDUCTION FACTOR FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE PRECAST RINGS SEGMENTS.

Author(s): Fernando Peña y Brianda Basurto.

Publication: IMCYC

Volume: 6

Issue: 1

Appears on pages(s): 15-35

Keywords: Tunnel, stiffness reduction factor, dowels, joints, moment – rotation relation.

DOI:

Date: 7/1/2014

Abstract:
"This paper presents a stiffness reduction factor for a continuous ring. In order to make it equivalent to a segmented ring. In geotechnical models it is common to model the segmented ring as a continuous ring. However, it is known that due to the existence of joints, there is a difference between the behavior of a segmented ring and a continuous ring. For this reason, it is necessary to reduce the stiffness of a continuous ring to make it equivalent to a segmented one. Thereby, in this paper a stiffness reduction factor is presented, which was obtained from the study of different parameters that modify the structural behavior of the rings: the vertical and horizontal loads ratio, the position and geometry of joints. The proposed formula is validated with experimental tests and it is compared with the existing factors in literature, in order to show the advantages and limitations of the proposed formulation. It is concluded that the proposed formulation provides a good approximation of the continuous ring in regard to a segmented ring; besides that is easy to apply in comparison with other existing formulations."