Surya Narayanan, MeghaMeghaSurya NarayananSchröder, MaximilianMaximilianSchröderMilatz, MariusMariusMilatzGrabe, JürgenJürgenGrabe2025-05-082025-05-082025IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1480 (1): (2025)https://hdl.handle.net/11420/55522Adhesion or “stickiness” of cohesive soils is a huge concern in the context of tunnelling applications owing to the risk of significant clogging in tunnel boring machines (TBMs) passing through fine-grained soils. Separation tests can be used to quantify the adhesive strength of soil-steel interfaces. In this study, a finite element model was developed to predict the behaviour of soil-steel interface subjected to a separation load. Adopting an exponential traction separation law, the surface-based cohesive contact effectively replicated the separation response of the adhesive interface.en1755-131520251Institute of Physicshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Technology::624: Civil Engineering, Environmental EngineeringConference Paperhttps://doi.org/10.15480/882.1514410.1088/1755-1315/1480/1/01206210.15480/882.15144Conference Paper