Monitoring daily and seasonal movement of an immersed tunnel

Abstract

Daily and seasonal deformation behavior of immersed tunnels potentially impacts the structural integrity. In this study, distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) are used to instrument both dilation and immersion joints of the Heinenoordtunnel, an immersed tunnel in the Netherlands. This DOFS system proves capable of measuring joint opening and uneven settlement at half-hour intervals. The field monitoring shows the Heinenoordtunnel behaves more like a rigid body and exhibits a cyclic vertical movement under daily tide impacts over a period of 12 hours. Moreover, the joints show a cyclic seasonal opening which is negatively correlation with temperature variations, i.e. the tunnel joints are compressed when the outside temperature rises and vice versa. These monitoring results