Comparative Study of Tunnel Internal Forces and Settlement in Soft Soil Using Conventional and Finite Element Methods: Case Study of Tunnel 1, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway

Abstract

The increasing demand for efficient transportation infrastructure in Indonesia has encouraged the development of underground construction projects, particularly tunnels in soft soil areas. Accurate evaluation of internal forces, deformation, and ground surface settlement is essential to ensure the safety and serviceability of tunnel structures during both construction and operation phases. This study presents a comparative analysis between conventional analytical methods and the finite element method in assessing internal forces on tunnel linings and estimating surface settlement in soft ground conditions. The research focuses on Tunnel 1 of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail project as a case study to investigate the differences in predictions produced by various conventional analytical approaches and finite element method simulations. Several conventional methods, including the Curtis-Muir Wood method, Japan Society of Civil Engineers code, and others for internal forces and the Peck & Schmidt approach for surface settlement, are compared against finite element method results to evaluate their reliability in soft soil applications. The methodology includes literature review, data collection, finite element method analysis, and analysis and validation with literature studies based on the obtained results. The findings indicate that conventional methods tend to be more conservative internal forces in soft ground tunnels compared to FEM analysis. Among the analytical approaches, the Curtis-Muir Wood method produced internal force results most comparable to those obtained from FEM simulations. In addition, settlement analysis results show that the ground surface settlement values from analytical method of Peck & Schmidt significantly more conservative.