Grouting technique is frequently used where a tunnel structure is passing through the shallow overburden area or where the thickness of hard rock above the tunnel is rather thin. However, engineering background on design process of the grout reinforcement does not seem to be fully understood until now. Mechanics of composite material is, therefore, introduced in this study to investigate the orthotropic material properties of the composites containing soil(or rock) and grouting material. These orthotropic material properties can be used to represent the reinfocement effects quantitatively. The model developed in this study is next applied to a typical tunnel structure and the grouting effect is analyzed numerically. The idea used in this study can be expanded to a situation where a pipe roofing or a forepoling technique is adopted and a simplified design procedure, similar to the model model introduced in this study, can be developed.
