A settlement prediction method based on shear wave velocity measurements and soil nonlinearity was recently developed and verified by means of centrifuge tests. However, the method was only applicable to heavily overconsolidated soil deposits under enlarged yield surfaces. In this study, the settlement evaluation method was refined to consider the stress history of the sublayer, based on an overconsolidation ratio evaluation technique, and thereby incorporate irrecoverable plastic deformation in the settlement calculation. A relationship between the small-strain shear modulus and overconsolidation ratio, which can be determined from laboratory tests, was adopted to describe the stress history of the subsurface. Based on the overconsolidation ratio determined, the value of an empirical coefficient that reflects the effect of plastic deformation over the elastic region is determined by comparing the overconsolidation ratio with the stress increment transmitted by the surface design load. The refined method that incorporate this empirical coefficient was successfully validated by means of centrifuge tests, even under normally consolidated loading conditions.

This paper presents an application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in settlement prediction of a foundation on sandy soil. In order to train the ANN model, a wide experimental database about settlement of foundations acquired from available literatures was collected. The data used in the ANNs model were arranged using the following five-input parameters that covered both geometrical foundation and sandy soil properties: breadth of foundation B, length to width L/B, embedment ratio D_f/B, foundation net applied pressure q_net, and average SPT blow count N. The backpropagation algorithm was implemented to develop an explicit predicting formulation. The settlement results are compared with the results of previous studies. The accuracy of the proposed formula proves that the ANNs method has a huge potential for predicting the settlement of foundations on sandy soils.

Cavities often develop behind the vault during the construction of double-arch tunnels, generally in the form of various defects. The study evaluates the impact of cavities behind the vault on the mechanical and failure behaviors of double-arch tunnels. Cavities of the same sizes are introduced at the vault and the shoulder close to the central wall of double-arch tunnels. Physical model tests are performed to investigate the liner stress variation, the earth pressure distribution and the process of progressive failure. Results reveal that the presence of cavities behind the liner causes the re-distribution of the earth pressure and induces stress concentration near the boundaries of cavities, which results in the bending moments in the liner inside the cavity to reverse sign from compression to tension. The liner near the invert becomes the weak region and stress concentration points are created in the outer fiber of the liner at the bottom of the sidewall and central wall. It is suggested that grouting into the foundation soils and backfilling injection should be carried out to ensure the tunnel safety. Changes in the location of cavities significantly impact the failure pattern of the liner close to the vault, e.g., cracks appear in the outer fiber of the liner inside the cavity when a cavity is located at the shoulder close to the central wall, which is different from the case that the cavity locates at the vault, whereas changes in the location of cavities have a little influence on the liner at the bottom of the double-arch tunnels.

Numbers fitting-curve equations have been proposed to predict soil-water retention curve (SWRC) whose parameters have no definitude physical meaning. And these methods with precondition of measuring SWRC data is time-consuming. A simplified directly method to estimate SWRC without parameters obtained by fitting-curve is proposed. Firstly, the total SWRC can be discretized into linear segments respectively. Every segment can be represented by linear formulation and every turning point can be determined by the pore-size distribution (PSD) of Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) tests. The pore diameters governing the air-entry condition (AEC) and residual condition (RC) can be determined by the PSDs of MIP test. The PSD changes significantly during drying in SWR test, so the determination of AEC and RC should use the PSD under corresponding suction conditions. Every parameter in proposed equations can be determined directly by PSD without curve-fitting procedure and has definitude physical meaning. The proposed equations give a good estimation of both unimodal and bimodal SWRCs.

Cutting of rocks is very common encountered in tunneling and mining during underground excavations. A deep understanding of rock-tool interaction can promote industrial applications significantly. In this paper, a distinct element method based approach, PFC^3D, is adopted to simulate the rock cutting under different operation conditions (cutting velocity, depth of cut and rake angle) and with various tool geometries (tip angle, tip wear and tip shape). Simulation results showed that the cutting force and accumulated number of cracks increase with increasing cutting velocity, cut depth, tip angle and pick abrasion. The number of cracks and cutting force decrease with increasing negative rake angle and increase with increasing positive rake angle. The numerical approach can offer a better insight into the rock-tool interaction during the rock cutting process. The proposed numerical method can be used to assess the rock cuttability, to estimate the cutting performance, and to design the cutter head.

A new code, called PRaFULL (Piled Raft Foundation Under Lateral Load), was developed for the analysis of laterally loaded Combined Pile Raft Foundation (CPRF). The proposed code considers the contribution offered by the raft-soil contact and the interactions between all the CPRF system components. The nonlinear behaviour of the reinforced concrete pile and the soil are accounted. As shallower soil layers are of great relevance in the lateral response of a pile foundation, PRaFULL includes the possibility to consider layered soil profiles with appropriate properties. The shadowing effect on the ultimate soil pressure is accounted, when dealing with pile groups, as proposed by the Strain Wedge Model. PRaFULL BEM code obviously requires less computational resources compared to FEM (Finite Element Method) or FDM (Finite Difference Method) codes. The proposed code was validated in the linear elastic range by comparisons with the code APRAF (Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations). The reliability of the procedure to predict piled raft performance was then verified in nonlinear range by comparisons with both centrifuge tests and computer code PRAB.

Based on the literature statistical method, the paper publication status of the isolated working face and the distribution of the rockburst coal mine were obtained. The numerical simulation method is used to study the stress distribution law of working face under different mining range. In addition, based on the similar material simulation test, the overlying strata failure modes and the deformation characteristics of coal pillars during the mining process of the isolated working face with thick-hard key strata are analyzed. The research shows that, under the influence of the key strata, the overlying strata formation above the isolated working face is a long arm T-type spatial structure. With the mining of the isolated working face, a series of damages occur in the coal pillars, causing the key strata to break and inducing the rockburst occurs. Combined with the mechanism of rockburst induced by the dynamic and static combined load, the source of dynamic and static load on the isolated working face is analyzed, and the rockburst monitoring methods and the prevention and control measures are proposed. Through the above research, the occurrence probability of rockburst can be effectively reduced, which is of great significance for the safe mining of deep coal mines.

Analysing the incompatible deformation and damage evolution around the tunnels in mixed strata is significant for evaluating the tunnel stability, as well as the interaction between the support system and the surrounding rock mass. To investigate this issue, confined compression tests were conducted on upper-soft and lower-hard strata specimens containing a circular hole using a rock testing system, the physical mechanical properties were then investigated. Then, the incompatible deformation and failure modes of the specimens were analysed based on the digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) and Acoustic Emission (AE) data. Finally, numerical simulations were conducted to explore the damage evolution of the mixed strata. The results indicate that at low inclination angles, the deformation and v-shaped notches inside the hole are controlled by the structure plane. Progressive spalling failure occurs at the sidewalls along the structure plane in soft rock. But the transmission of the loading force between the soft rock and hard rock are different in local. At high inclination angles, v-shaped notches are approximately perpendicular to the structure plane, and the soft and hard rock bear common loads. Incompatible deformation between the soft rock and hard rock controls the failure process. At inclination angles of 0°, 30° and 90°, incompatible deformations are closely related to rock damage. At 60°, incompatible deformations and rock damage are discordant due that the soft rock and hard rock alternately bears the major loads during the failure process. The failure trend and modes of the numerical results agree very well with those observed in the experimental results. As the inclination angles increase, the proportion of the shear or tensile damage exhibits a nonlinear increase or decrease, suggesting that the inclination angle of mixed strata may promote shear damage and restrain tensile damage.