The surrounding rock mass contains cracks and joints which are distributed randomly around tunnels, and in the process of tunnel blasting excavation, radial cracks could also be induced in the surrounding rock mass. In order to clearly understand the impact of radial cracks on tunnel stability, tunnel model tests and finite element numerical analysis were implemented in this paper. Two kinds of materials: cement mortar and sandstone, were used to make tunnel models, which were loaded vertically and confined horizontally. The tunnel failure pattern was simulated by using RFPA2D code, and the Tresca stresses and the stress intensity factors were calculated by using ABAQUS code, which were applied to the analysis of tunnel model test results. The numerical results generally agree with the model test results, and the mode II stress intensity factors calculated by ABAQUS code can well explain the model test results. It can be seen that for tunnels with a radial crack emanating from three points on tunnel edge, i.e., the middle point between tunnel spandrel and its top with a dip angle $45^{\circ}$, the tunnel foot with a dip angle $127^{\circ}$, and the tunnel spandrel with $135^{\circ}$ with tunnel wall, the tunnel model strength is about a half of the regular tunnel model strength, and the corresponding tunnel stability decreases largely.

Soft clay soils due to their various geotechnical problems, stabilized with different additives. Traditional additives such as cement and lime will not able to increase the soil strength properties significantly. So, it seems necessary to use new additives for increasing strength parameters of soft clay soils significantly. Among the new additives, epoxy resins have excellent physical and mechanical properties, low shrinkage, excellent resistance to chemicals and corrosive materials, etc. So, in this research, epoxy resin used for stabilization of soft clay soils. For comprehensive study, three clay soil samples with different PI and various clay mineral types were studied. A series of uniaxial tests, SEM and XRD analysis conducted on the samples. The results show that using epoxy resin increases the strength parameters such as UCS, elastic modulus and material toughness about 100 to 500 times which the increase was dependent on the type of clay minerals type in the soil. Also, In addition to water conservation, the best efficiency in the weakest and most sensitive soils is the prominent results of stabilization by epoxy resin which can be used in different climatic zones, especially in hot and dry and equatorial climate which will be faced with water scarcity.

This paper presents the results of numerical modeling studies on the effect of displacements of tunneling in granular soils. Presence of building loads is considered, to find displacement generated at the surface on tunnel. Effect of varying eccentricities of building is simulated, to find influence of building on vertical and horizontal displacement. Studies were carried out in two cases of with and without a geosynthetic layer installed at the bottom of the footing. Results of analysis revealed, the presence of geosynthetic layer under footing, with building placed on centre line, reduced the surface displacements compared to displacement generated without geosynthetic layer. Presence of geosynthetic layer under footing had a dominant effect in reducing displacements in high storey structures. However, when the building was shifted to greater eccentricities from centre line, presence of geosynthetic layer, led to insignificant reduction of displacements on the centre line at the surface.

In the analysis of the effects of rock tunnel blasting vibration on adjacent existing buildings, the model of simplified equivalent load produces higher calculation result of vibration, due to the lack of consideration of the millisecond delay effect. This paper, based on the static force equivalence principle of blasting load, proposes a new determination method of equivalent load of blasting vibration. The proposed method, based on the elastic-static force equivalence principle of stress wave, equals the blasting loads of several single blastholes in the same section of millisecond blasting to the triangle blasting load curve of the exploded equivalent elastic boundary surface. According to the attenuation law of stress wave, the attenuated equivalent triangle blasting load curve of the equivalent elastic boundary is applied on the tunnel excavation contour surface, obtaining the final applied equivalent load. Taking the millisecond delay time of different sections into account, the time-history curve of equivalent load of the whole section applied on the tunnel excavation contour surface can be obtained. Based on Sailing Tunnel with small spacing on Sanmenxia-Xichuan Expressway, an analysis on the blasting vibration response of the later and early stages of the tunnel construction is carried out through numerical simulation using the proposed equivalent load model considering millisecond delay effect and the simplified equivalent triangle load curve model respectively. The analysis of the numerical results comparing with the field monitoring ones shows that the calculation results obtained from the proposed equivalent load model are closer to the measured ones and more feasible.

This paper uses a finite element based approach to provide a comprehensive understanding to the behaviour and the design performance of buried uPVC pipes with different diameters. It also investigates pipes with good and poor haunch support and proposes minimum safe wall thicknesses for these pipes. The results for pipes with good haunch support showed that the maximum pipe wall stress and deformation increase as the diameter increased. The results for pipes with poor haunch support showed an increase in the dependency of the developed vertical displacement on the haunch support as the diameter or the backfill height increased. Additionally, poor haunch support was found to increase the soil pressure, with the effect increasing as the diameter increased. The design of uPVC pipes for both poor and good haunch support was found to be governed by critical buckling. A key outcome is a new design chart for the minimum wall thickness, which enables the robust and economic design of buried uPVC pipes. Importantly, the methodology adopted in this study can also be applied to the design of flexible pipes manufactured from other materials, buried under different conditions and subjected to different loading arrangements.

The growth of cities requires the construction of new tunnels close to the existing ones. Prediction and control of ground movement around the tunnel are important especially in urban area. The ground respond due to EPB (Earth Pressure Balance) pressure are investigated using the finite element method by ABAQUS in intersection of the triplet tunnels (Line 2, 3 and 4) of Mashhad Urban Railway in Iran. Special attention is paid to the effect of EPB pressure on the tunnel face displacement. The results of the analysis show that in EPB tunneling, surface settlement and face displacement is related to EPB pressure. Moreover, it is found that tunnel construction sequence is a great effect in face displacement value. For this study, this value in Line 4 where is excavated after line 3, is smaller than that line. In addition, the trend of the displacement curves are changed with the depth for all lines where is located in above and below, close to and above the centerline tunnel face for Line 2, 3 and 4, respectively. It is concluded that: (i) the surface settlement decreases with increasing EPB pressure on the tunnel face; (ii) at a constant EPB pressure, the tunnel face displacement values increase with depth. In addition, this is depended on the tunneling sequence; (iii) the trend of the displacement curves change with the depth.

Shake table tests were conducted on scaled tunnel model to investigate the mechanism and effect of seismic loadings on horseshoe scaled tunnel model in ground fissure site. Key technical details of the experimental test were set up, including similarity relations, boundary conditions, sensor layout, modelling methods were presented. Synthetic waves and El Centro waves were adopted as the input earthquake waves. Results measured from hanging wall and foot wall were compared and analyzed. It is found that the seismic loadings increased the subsidence of hanging wall and lead to the appearance and propagation of cracks. The values of acceleration, earth pressure and strain were greater in the hanging wall than those in the foot wall. The tunnel exhibited the greatest earth pressure on right and left arches, however, the earth pressure on the crown of arch is the second largest and the inverted arch has the least earth pressure in the same tunnel section. Therefore, the effect of the hanging wall on the seismic performance of metro tunnel in earth fissure ground should be considered in the seismic design.

In consideration of the mesoscopic structure of soil-rock mixtures in which the rock aggregates are wrapped by soil at normal temperatures, a two-layer embedded model of single-inclusion composite material was built to calculate the shear modulus of soil-rock mixtures. At a freezing temperature, an interface ice interlayer was placed between the soil and rock interface in the mesoscopic structure of the soil-rock mixtures. Considering that, a three-layer embedded model of double-inclusion composite materials and a multi-step multiphase micromechanics model were then built to calculate the shear modulus of the frozen soil-rock mixtures. Given the effect of pore structure of soil-rock mixtures at normal temperatures, its shear modulus was also calculated by using of the three-layer embedded model. Experimental comparison showed that compared with the two-layer embedded model, the effect predicted by the three-layer embedded model of the soil-rock mixtures was better. The shear modulus of the soil-rock mixtures gradually increased with the increase in rock regardless of temperature, and the increment rate of the shear modulus increased rapidly particularly when the rock content ranged from 50% to 70%. The shear modulus of the frozen soil-rock mixtures was nearly 3.7 times higher than that of the soil-rock mixtures at a normal temperature.

Based on the theory of porous media, an interaction system of a floating pile and a saturated soil in cylindrical coordinates subjected to vertical harmonic load is presented in this paper. The surrounding soil is separated into two distinct layers. The upper soil layer above the level of pile base is described as a saturated viscoelastic medium and the lower soil layer is idealized as equivalent spring-dashpot elements with complex stiffness. Considering the cylindrically symmetry and the pile-soil compatibility condition of the interaction system, a frequency-domain analytical solution for dynamic impedance of the floating pile embedded in saturated viscoelastic soil is also derived, and reduced to verify it with existing solutions. An extensive parametric analysis has been conducted to reveal the effects of the impedance of the lower soil base, the interaction coefficient and the damping coefficient of the saturated viscoelastic soil layer on the vertical vibration of the pile-soil interaction system. It is shown that the vertical dynamic impedance of the floating pile significantly depends on the real stiffness of the impedance of the lower soil base, but is less sensitive to its dynamic damping variation; the behavior of the pile in poro-visco-elastic soils is totally different with that in single-phase elastic soils due to the existence of pore liquid; the effect of the interaction coefficient of solid and liquid on the pile-soil system is limited.

The abrasivity of rocks results in tool wear in rock excavation or drilling projects. It can affect significantly the cost and schedule of the projects performed in abrasive rock massess. For this reason, the understanding of the mechanism of rock abrasivity is very important for excavation projects. This study investigates the effect of strength on the LCPC abrasivity coefficient (LAC) for igneous rocks. The LCPT test, the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and the Brazilian tensile strength (BTS) tests were carried out on the igneous rock samples. The abrasive mineral content (AMC) was also determined for each rock type. First, the LAC was correlated to the AMC and a very good correlation was found between the two parameters. Then, the multiple regression analysis was carried out by including the AMC, UCS and BTS to the analysis in order to infer the effect of the strength on the LAC. It was seen that the correlation coefficients of multiple regression models were greater than that of the relation between the LAC and the AMC. It is concluded that the AMC is the dominant parameter determining the abrasivity of rock. On the other hand, the rock strength has also significant effect on rock abrasivity.