Determining the minimum distance between centers of two parallel tunnels to apply the Law of Super Position in order to calculate subsidence by using the software FLAC 3D

Due to the development of cities as well as rapid population growth, urban traffic is increasing nowadays. Hence, to improve traffic flow, underground structures such as metro, especially in metropolises, are inevitable. This paper is a research on the twin tunnels Of Isfahan's metro between Shariaty station and Azadi station from the North towards the South. In this study, simultaneous drilling of subway's twin tunnels is simulated by means of Finite Difference Method (FDM) and FLAC 3D software. Moreover, the lowest distance between two tunnels is determined in a way that the Law of Super Position could be utilized to manually calculate the amount of surface subsidence, resulted by drilling two tunnels, by employing the results of the analysis of single tunnels without using simultaneous examination and simulation. In this paper, this distance is called "effective distance". For this purpose, first, the optimum dimensions of the model is chosen and then, five models with optimum dimensions will be analyzed separately, each of which in three steps. The results of analyses shows that the proportions (L/D) greater than or equal 2.80, the Law of Super Position can be applied for prediction of surface subsidence, caused by twin tunnels' construction