Undrained seismic response of underground structures

Underground structures must be able to support static overburden loads, as well as to accommodate additional deformations imposed by seismic motions. It seems well established that the most critical demand to the structure is caused by shear waves traveling perpendicular to the tunnel axis, which cause distortions of the cross section (ovaling for a circular tunnel, and racking for a rectangular tunnel) that result in axial forces (thrusts) and bending moments. While all this has been well-studied for structures placed in linear-elastic ground under drained loading conditions, there is little ...