Resumen
(1) In quasi-rectangular tunnels, a new type of special-section shield tunnels, the effect of nonlinear joint behavior is much more important than in circular tunnels. (2) An iterative nonlinear spring-beam model for the prediction of lining deformations and bending moments in a shield tunnel is presented. (3) The predictions are validated against unique full ring test results. (4) The relevance of the presented method, compared to a constant joint stiffness approach, is demonstrated. (5) A parametric study into the design parameters for quasi-rectangular tunnels is presented.