Design procedure for precast fibre-reinforced concrete segments in tunnel lining construction

This paper presents a procedure for designing precast tunnel segments for mechanically excavated tunnel linings in fibre-reinforced concrete, without any traditional steel reinforcement. Both ultimate and serviceability limit states are considered as well as structural checks at different construction stages of the segment, including demoulding, positioning on floor, storage, transportation, handling and the final stage concerning the loads due to the ground pressure.
The structural checks are performed by means of bending moment-axial force interaction envelopes for both the considered limit states, once the constitutive relationship of the material is defined for each stage. Traditional interaction envelopes are drawn for the ultimate limit state check, whereas for the serviceability limit state check, envelopes obtained by limiting the maximum crack opening and maximum concrete compressive stress are proposed. The shear action is also accounted for by reducing the bending moment-axial force envelope. The possibility of having the assistance of a test procedure for particular loading situations is also proposed. Finally, a case study related to a precast steel fibre-reinforced concrete segment is analysed in order to clarify the procedure and show, practically, how to define the actions and evaluate the interaction envelopes.