The high cost of urban space has significantly increased the demand for tunnels in big urban centers. In such areas

settlement induced by the tunnel excavation may cause serious damage to nearby structures. Therefore

it is necessary to investigate effective means of controlling tunnel-induced settlements. In many countries

tunnel in soil and rock mass are constructed using new Austrian tunneling method (NATM) for its flexibility to adapt to different ground conditions and use of simple equipments. Ago

tunnel designs by NATM are generally based on empirical methods taking into account local experiences. But this method is said to be observational and cannot illustrate the construction process and the stress and strain changing. So that

with the developing of PC and numerical method

using FEM and other method have been utilized in geotechnical engineering. At first

the paper shows the principles of NATM

and illustrating the two key: excavating unloading node force on the tunnel boundary and constructing steps. And on the base of above illustration

utilizing finite element code ABAQUS analyzing and modeling a tunnel. From obtained results

it is shown that the finite element method can model tunnel constructing process reasonably.