Response of buried tunnels to earthquake excitation

A simplified approach, such as that described by Constantopoulos, et al. permits the evaluation of peak earth pressures and internal stresses through a series of static analyses. This method considers: - bending stresses induced by the passage of seismic waves along the tunnel axis; - transverse loading on the tunnel due to body and surface waves; and - longitudinal loading due to components of particle motion parallel to the axis of the tunnel. The paper summarizes the most important aspects of the simplified procedure and discusses trends in analytical results stemming from recent analyses on tunnels having varying cross-sectional dimensions and lengths. (orig./HP)