Subsurface Visualization and Statistical Modeling for Tunneling Projects

PROJECT NUMBER: 99

AUTHOR: Nathan Commissariat, Civil and Environmental Engineering | MENTOR: Rajat Gangrade, Underground Construction and Tunneling

ABSTRACT

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Over the course of several decades, there has been a significant increase in the usage of tunnel boring ma-
chines (TBMs) for underground projects including highways, subways, and structures for utilities. Throughout a tunneling process, a TBM can be expected to drill through several different types of conditions, with each requiring different speeds, tunnel face pressures, and other variations in the tunneling process. Though these projects offer immense quality of life improvements upon completion, they face several delays, budget overruns, and unnecessary complexity often stemming from one key problem: inability to determine when/where the TBM will encounter different types of soil. Data visualization offers a solution to this dilemma by combining in-situ data collection (soil samples / boreholes) and statistical modeling procedures, to create realistic predictions of what could be encountered by a TBM in the process of tunneling. A beneficial analysis of tunneling conditions could be provided through both a data plot constructed to represent the location of boreholes and longitudinal profiles of boreholes. Visualization of geological conditions helps to communicate the risk of a project to contractors, owners, and other stakeholders, in addition to helping the tunneling industry dramatically improve in efficiency and affordability in the future.

VISUAL PRESENTATION

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

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Nathan Commissariat is a freshman student majoring in Civil Engineering and conducting research within the Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling department. Building off of interest in the tunneling industry, Nathan began his research career by exploring the process of a tunneling project and the potential problems faced during each stage of construction. Continuing on this path, he began to explore particular areas of a tunneling project in detail, including encountered soil conditions, in an effort to determine how to limit the, often high, variable costs on tunneling projects. In the future, Nathan would like to research methods to increase the efficiency and speeds of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), potential sensor implementation on TBMs, and other implementations of statistical modeling to increase the success of a tunneling project.

Sponsored by Phillips 66