Considering the coupled heat transfer effect induced by parallel cross-river road tunnels, the long-term soil temperature variations of shallow sections of cross-river tunnels under the river beach are predicted using the finite difference method for numerical simulation. The boundary conditions and the initial values are determined by in situ observations and numerical iterations.The simulation results indicate that the ultimate calculated steady heat transfer time is 68 years, and most of the heat transfer is completed in 20 years.The initial constant temperature soil surrounding the tunnels is transformed to an annually variable one.An obvious temperature-varying region of the surrounding soil is discovered within 5 m from the tunnel exterior, as well as within the entire range of soil between the two tunnels.The maximum temperature increase value reaches 7.14 ℃ and the maximum peak-to-valley value of annual temperature increase reaches 10 ℃.The temperature variation of soils surrounding tunnels below 10 m is completely controlled by the heat transfer from the tunnels.The coupled heat transfer effect is confirmed because the ultimate steady temperature of soil between the two tunnels is higher than the ones along other positions.Moreover, the regression model comprising a series of univariate functions is proposed for the annual soil temperature fluctuation estimation for the locations varied distances around the tunnel.This investigation is beneficial to gain an insight into the long-term variation tendencies of local engineering geological conditions of the river beach above shallow sections of the cross-river road tunnels.
