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In the process of excavating seven parallel tunnels at the Jinping II Hydropower Station, several extremely intense rockbursts occurred, killing and injuring construction workers and damaging several sets of equipment. Based on the characteristics and mechanisms of these rockbursts, four typical events were selected and their temporal and spatial characteristics were here described in detail. The geological conditions revealed after the rockbursts were surveyed carefully. The responses of support elements were also analyzed. The details documented in each case provide not only an important reference for understanding the development mechanisms of rockbursts but also a basis for the selection and development of rockburst prevention measures in deep hard rock tunnels.

For long deep tunnels as currently under construction through the Alps, mechanized excavation using tunnel boring machines (TBMs) contributes significantly to savings in construction time and costs. Questions are, however, posed due to the severe ground conditions which are in cases anticipated or encountered along the main tunnel alignment. A major geological hazard is the squeezing of weak rocks, but also brittle failure can represent a significant problem. For the design of mechanized tunnelling in such conditions, the complex interaction between the rock mass, the tunnel machine, its system components, and the tunnel support need to be analysed in detail and this can be carried out by three-dimensional (3D) models including all these components. However, the state-of-the-art shows that very few fully 3D models for mechanical deep tunnel excavation in rock have been developed so far. A completely three-dimensional simulator of mechanised tunnel excavation is presented in this paper. The TBM of reference is a technologically advanced double shield TBM designed to cope with both conditions. Design analyses with reference to spalling hazard along the Brenner and squeezing along the Lyon–Turin Base Tunnel are discussed.

When planning a TBM drive in squeezing ground, the tunnelling engineer faces a complex problem involving a number of conflicting factors. In this respect, numerical analyses represent a helpful decision aid as they provide a quantitative assessment of the effects of key parameters. The present paper investigates the interaction between the shield, ground and tunnel support by means of computational analysis. Emphasis is placed on the boundary condition, which is applied to model the interface between the ground and the shield or tunnel support. The paper also discusses two cases, which illustrate different methodical approaches applied to the assessment of a TBM drive in squeezing ground. The first case history—the Uluabat Tunnel (Turkey)—mainly involves the investigation of TBM design measures aimed at reducing the risk of shield jamming. The second case history—the Faido Section of the Gotthard Base Tunnel (Switzerland)—deals with different types of tunnel support installed behind a gripper TBM.

Karaj Water Conveyance Tunnel (KWCT) is 30-km long and has been designed for transferring 16 m 3 /s of water from Amir-Kabir dam to northwest of Tehran. Lot No. 1 of this long tunnel, with a length of 16 km, is under construction with a double shield TBM and currently about 8.7 km of the tunnel has been excavated/lined. This paper will offer an overview of the project, concentrating on the TBM operation and will review the results of field performance of the machine. In addition to analysis of the available data including geological and geotechnical information and machine operational parameters, actual penetration and advance rates will be compared to the estimated machine performance using prediction models, such as CSM, NTNU and Q TBM . Also, results of analysis to correlate TBM performance parameters to rock mass characteristics will be discussed. This involves statistical analysis of the available data to develop new empirical methods. The preliminary results of this study revealed that the available prediction models need some corrections or modifications to produce a more accurate prediction in geological conditions of this particular project.

An exact closed form solution is derived for the mechanical behaviour of a linear viscoelastic Burgers rock around an axisymmetric tunnel, supported by a linear elastic ring. Analytical formulae are provided for the displacement of the rock/lining interface and for the pressure exerted by the rock on the lining, taking into account the stiffness and its installation time. Results calculated from these formulae do validate the corresponding numerical results of a 2D finite differences code. Further, comparison to previous existing solutions for the same viscoelastic model indicates similarities and differences. A parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of the viscoelastic constants, the stiffness and installation time of the support. The derived closed form solution is used to construct the time-dependent Supported Ground Reaction Curves of the viscoelastic rock, i.e. the time contour plots on the convergence confinement diagram. The importance of the effect of the support on the restrained rock creep and the exerted pressure on the lining, during the design life of a structure, is examined.

It is widely accepted that the in-situ strength of massive rocks is approximately 0.4 ± 0.1 UCS, where UCS is the uniaxial compressive strength obtained from unconfined tests using diamond drilling core samples with a diameter around 50 mm. In addition, it has been suggested that the in-situ rock spalling strength, i.e., the strength of the wall of an excavation when spalling initiates, can be set to the crack initiation stress determined from laboratory tests or field microseismic monitoring. These findings were supported by back-analysis of case histories where failure had been carefully documented, using either Kirsch’s solution (with approximated circular tunnel geometry and hence σ max  =  3σ 1 −σ 3 ) or simplified numerical stress modeling (with a smooth tunnel wall boundary) to approximate the maximum tangential stress σ max at the excavation boundary. The ratio of σ max / UCS is related to the observed depth of failure and failure initiation occurs when σ max is roughly equal to 0.4 ± 0.1 UCS. In this article, it is suggested that these approaches ignore one of the most important factors, the irregularity of the excavation boundary, when interpreting the in-situ rock strength. It is demonstrated that the “actual” in-situ spalling strength of massive rocks is not equal to 0.4 ± 0.1 UCS, but can be as high as 0.8 ± 0.05 UCS when surface irregularities are considered. It is demonstrated using the Mine-by tunnel notch breakout example that when the realistic “as-built” excavation boundary condition is honored, the “actual” in-situ rock strength, given by 0.8 UCS, can be applied to simulate progressive brittle rock failure process satisfactorily. The interpreted, reduced in-situ rock strength of 0.4 ± 0.1 UCS without considering geometry irregularity is therefore only an “apparent” rock strength.

This paper presents a practical procedure for assessing the system reliability of a rock tunnel. Three failure modes, namely, inadequate support capacity, excessive tunnel convergence, and insufficient rockbolt length, are considered and investigated using a deterministic model of ground-support interaction analysis based on the convergence–confinement method (CCM). The failure probability of each failure mode is evaluated from the first-order reliability method (FORM) and the response surface method (RSM) via an iterative procedure. The system failure probability bounds are estimated using the bimodal bounds approach suggested by Ditlevsen ( 1979 ), based on the reliability index and design point inferred from the FORM. The proposed approach is illustrated with an example of a circular rock tunnel. The computed system failure probability bounds compare favorably with those generated from Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that the relative importance of different failure modes to the system reliability of the tunnel mainly depends on the timing of support installation relative to the advancing tunnel face. It is also shown that reliability indices based on the second-order reliability method (SORM) can be used to achieve more accurate bounds on the system failure probability for nonlinear limit state surfaces. The system reliability-based design for shotcrete thickness is also demonstrated.

Rock mass parameters including weak surfaces are the most important parameters which should be taken into account for an accurate analysis of the rock penetration by disc cutters. To date, many experimental, theoretical, and numerical simulation-based researches have been carried out on the interaction of TBM disc cutter performance and joint spacing and orientation. However, in most of these works, the inuence of joint spacing and orientation on disc cutter performance and chip formation have been studied individually. Among them, the researches by Wanner and Aeberli (1979) on the inuence of discontinuity frequency of different types of discontinuity on TBM specic penetration.

Geotechnical design input parameters, such as in situ stress field, rock mass strength parameters and deformation modulus, are never known precisely. There are always uncertainties involved in these parameters, some are intrinsic and others are due to lack of knowledge or understanding of these parameters. To quantify the effects of these uncertainties on tunnel and cavern design, it is necessary to utilize probabilistic analysis methods. In the present study, a quantitative, probabilistic approach to use the Geological Strength Index (GSI) system for rock mass characterization is presented. It employs the block volume and a joint condition factor as quantitative characterization factors to determine the GSI values. The approach is built on the linkage between descriptive geological terms and measurable field parameters such as joint spacing and joint roughness, which are random variables. Using GSI values obtained from field mapping data, and in combination with the intact rock strength properties, the probability density distributions of rock mass strength parameters and elastic moduli of the jointed rock mass can be calculated using Monte Carlo method. Furthermore, probabilistic analysis of tunnel and cavern stability based on the variable input parameters is conducted employing the point estimate method. One example is given to illustrate how to consider the variability of in situ stress and the rock mass properties in tunnel and cavern design. The method presents an approach for systematic assessment of uncertainty in rock mass characterization in rock engineering, and it can assist us to better understand how uncertainty arises and how the rock support system design decision may be affected by it.

The construction of underground tunnels is a time-dependent process. The states of stress and strain in the ground vary with time due to the construction process. Stress and strain variations are heavily dependent on the rheological behavior of the hosting rock mass. In this paper, analytical closed-form solutions are developed for the excavation of a circular tunnel supported by the construction of two elastic liners in a viscoelastic surrounding rock under a hydrostatic stress field. In the solutions, the stiffness and installation times of the liners are accounted for. To simulate realistically the process of tunnel excavation, a time-dependent excavation process is considered in the development of the solutions, assuming that the radius of the tunnel grows from zero until its final value according to a time-dependent function to be specified by the designers. The integral equations for the supporting pressures between rock and first liner are derived according to the boundary conditions for linear viscoelastic rocks (unified model). Then, explicit analytical expressions are obtained by considering either the Maxwell or the Boltzmann viscoelastic model for the rheology of the rock mass. Applications of the obtained solutions are illustrated using two examples, where the response in terms of displacements and stresses caused by various combinations of excavation rate, first and second liner installation times, and the rheological properties of the rock is illustrated.