Analysis on the stiffness iteration of segmental joints in segmental linings: Method and sensitivity analysis

Abstract In current structural analyses on segmental linings, the bending stiffness of segmental joints is usually treated as a constant, which results in a deviation in the calculated internal forces and deformation. In view of this, a finite element model of segmental linings is established using one ring and two half rings. An iterative algorithm is designed with a 3D curved surface of bending stiffness for the segmental joint, obtained from a series of full-scale tests under different axial force and bending moment cases. The rational convergence criteria for the iterative algorithm are recommended by evaluating the convergence efficiency of the iterative algorithm. Moreover, the influence of load magnitude and initial value of bending stiffness, as well as the changing laws of structural internal forces and deformation with the assembly angles, are presented and analyzed. The results show that with the same load, the convergence of the iterative algorithm in staggered-jointed assembly structures (STGS) is better than that of straight-jointed assembly structures (STRS), owing to its greater overall stiffness. The initial input value of bending stiffness has no effect on the convergence of the proposed iterative algorithm, and generally the convergence performance in STGS is better than that in STRS. In STRS, the bending moment is most sensitive to the changes of assembly angles, while in STGS the assembly angles have great influence on both the bending moment and structural displacement. Without the stiffness iteration, the maximum differences for maximum axial force, bending moment, and displacement under different assembly angle in STRS are 11.7%, 31.9% and 22.3%, respectively, and that differences in STGS are 10.4%, 59.3% and 35.1%, respectively. With the stiffness iterative method, the increase amplitude of the maximum axial force, the maximum bending moment, and the maximum displacement in STRS and STGS are 50.0%, 317.4%, 77.1% and 41.9%, 459.3%, 156.5%, respectively, indicating that changing the assembly angles is a rational way to control the internal structural forces and deformations.