Members of both CUSP and NYU Tandon turned out to hear Manhattan College Assistant Professor Evangelina (Eva) Ieronymaki speak about the interpretation of ground movements due to the construction of the Crossrail tunnels in London, UK on May 11th, 2017.
Abstract
Construction of large diameter tunnels is frequently accomplished by closed face tunnel boring machines (TBM), using a combination of face pressure and grouting around the precast lining in order to limit ground movements and potential damage to overlying structures. In practice, urban tunneling projects require extensive monitoring of ground and structure response to the tunneling operations. Although these data are primarily used to address liability issues, they are crucial for the calibration and evaluation of predictive methods. This talk focussed on analyses of ground movements monitoring data caused by the construction of the Crossrail tunnels in London Clay. Crossrail is currently the largest infrastructure project in Europe and one of the most well-instrumented projects in the world. It consists of twin tunnels, constructed by Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) and Mixed Shield TBM, that pass under existing underground tunnels, sewers, and building foundations. Free-field measurements of surface and subsurface ground movements were interpreted using 2D finite element analyses with different soil constitutive models. The analyses optimized three input parameters corresponding to boundary deformations around the tunnel cavity, using a least squares fit to the measured ground movements. The results provide a comprehensive view of the ground movement pattern and a useful framework for understanding how ground response is linked to EPB control parameters, which can be further investigated using 3D finite element models.
Bio
Eva Ieronymaki is an Assistant Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Manhattan College and a Research Affiliate at MIT in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She received a Diploma in 2007 and a Master of Science in “Analysis and design of earthquake resistant structures” in 2008 from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. She was then awarded the Edward Linde Presidential Fellowship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to continue her graduate studies. There she completed her Master of Science in 2011 and her PhD in 2015, for research in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. Her research deals primarily with numerical modeling, soil behavior, and effects of tunneling on soils and structures, using advanced constitutive soil models. During her PhD, she collaborated closely with the Crossrail construction consortium (BAM-Ferrovial-Kier) and she performed part of her research on the construction site in England (2013). She also worked as a summer intern, at Attiko Metro S.A., during the construction of the red-line subway extension, in 2007. Dr. Ieronymaki is a licensed professional engineer, a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece since 2007, and an Associate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) since 2015. She has received several prizes and awards during her undergraduate and graduate studies, including ‘Greek State Scholarship Foundation’ scholarship, Hatzopoulos prize NTUA, Kontodimos prize NTUA and Gerondelis Foundation fellowship.
Prof. Laefer was invited to speak on city-scale urban modeling at the picturesque Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Her talk, presented on May 10th, 2017, shared recent progress and potential in the use of remote sensing for massive urban modeling, including the use of hyperspectral data to conduct material analysis.