During EPB shield tunnelling, construction speed and safety are severely affected by spewing. In this study, a theoretical seepage model is established to capture of the effects of screw conveyor geometry and turbulent flow on spewing. Experimental test results are used to verify the proposed theoretical seepage model. It is found that the seepage is greatly affected by the length of screw conveyor and soil permeability. The proposed model can increase the screw conveyor length and reduce soil discharge sections simultaneously, the permeability of treated muck thus decreases by one order of magnitude. By using the proposed theoretical seepage model, the criterion of critical soil permeability used to identify spewing is proposed. When the water head applied at tunnel face reaches 40 m and 50 m, the critical permeability coefficients of treated muck should be less than 10^-5 m/s and 10^-6 m/s to avoid spewing. For a given permeability coefficient of soil, the water flow rate is overestimated if structural characteristics of screw conveyor is not considered. Consequently, the occurrence of spewing is greatly overestimated, which increases construction cost substantially.

North Anatolian Fault Zone is tectonically active with recent earthquakes (Mw7.6 1999-Kocaeli and Mw7.2 1999-Düzce earthquakes) and it passes through Marmara region, which is highly industrialized, densely populated and economically important part of Turkey. Many power plants, located in Marmara region, are exposed to high seismic hazard. In this study, open source OpenQuake software has been used for the probabilistic earthquake hazard analysis of Marmara region and risk assessment for the specified energy facility. The SHARE project seismic zonation model has been used in the analysis with the regional sources, NGA GMPEs and site model logic trees. The earthquake hazard results have been compared with the former and existing earthquake resistant design regulations in Turkey, TSC 2007 and TBSCD 2018. In the scope of the study, the seismic hazard assessment for a typical natural gas combined cycle power plant located in Marmara region has been achieved. The seismic risk assessment has been accomplished for a typical control building located in the power plant using obtained seismic hazard results. The structural and non-structural fragility functions and a consequence model have been used in the seismic risk assessment. Based on the seismic hazard level with a 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, considered for especially these type of critical structures, the ratios of structural and non-structural loss to the total building cost were obtained as 8.8% and 45.7%, respectively. The results of the study enable the practical seismic risk assessment of the critical facility located on different regions.

In this paper, an analytical solution of large-strain cylindrical cavity expansion in compaction grouting problem under temperature field is given. Considering the stress increment caused by temperature, the analytical solution of cavity expansion under traditional isothermal conditions is improved by substituting the temperature stress increment into the cavity expansion analysis. Subsequently, combined with the first law of thermodynamics, the energy theory is also introduced into the cylindrical cavity expansion analysis, and the energy dissipation solution of cylindrical cavity expansion is derived. Finally, the validity and reliability of solution are proved by comparing the results of expansion pressure with those in published literatures. The results show that the dimensionless expansion pressure increases with the increase of temperature, and the thermal response increases with the increase of dilation angle. The higher the exothermic temperature of grouting slurry, the greater the plastic deformation energy of the surrounding soil, that is, the greater the influence on the surrounding soil deformation and the surrounding environment. The proposed solution not only enrich the theoretical system of cavity expansion, but also can be used as a theoretical tool for energy geotechnical engineering problems, such as CPT, nuclear waste disposal, energy pile and chemical grouting, etc.

Population growth and urbanization prompted engineers to propose more sophisticated and efficient transportation methods, such as underground transit systems. However, due to limited urban space, it is necessary to construct these tunnels in close proximity to existing infrastructure like high-rise buildings and bridges. Battered piles have been widely used for their higher stiffness and bearing capacity compared to vertical piles, making them effective in resisting lateral loads from winds, soil pressures, and impacts. Considerable prior research has been concerned with understanding the vertical pile response to tunnel excavation. However, the three-dimensional effects of tunnelling on adjacent battered piled foundations are still not investigated. This study investigates the response of a single battered pile to tunnelling at three critical depths along the pile: near the pile shaft (S), next to the pile (T), and below the pile toe (B). An advanced hypoplastic model capable of capturing small strain stiffness is used to simulate clay behaviour. The computed results reveal that settlement and load transfer mechanisms along the battered pile, resulting from tunnelling, depend significantly on the tunnel's location relative the length of the pile. The largest settlement of the battered pile occurs in the case of T. Conversely, the greatest pile head deflection is caused by tunnelling near the pile shaft. The battered pile experiences "dragload" due to negative skin friction mobilization resulting from tunnel excavation in the case of S. The battered pile is susceptible to induced bending moments when tunnelling occurs near the pile shaft S whereas the magnitude of induced bending moment is minimal in the case of B.

In this study, three-dimensional numerical parametric study was conducted to explore deformation mechanisms of grouped piled-raft-foundation due to lateral load in clays. Effects of load intensity, loading angle, soil stiffness, pile diameter, pile spacing and pile length on foundation deformations were explored. It is found that the smallest and largest movements of pile foundation are induced when the loading angles are 0° and 30°~60°, respectively. By increasing loading angle from 0° to 30°~60°, the resultant horizontal movements and settlements increase by up to 20.0% and 57.1%, respectively. Since connection beams can substantially increase integrity of four piled raft foundation, resultant horizontal movements, settlements and bending moments induced in the piled raft foundation decrease by up to 54.0%, 8.8% and 46.3%, respectively. By increasing soil stiffness five times, resultant horizontal movements and settlements of pile foundation decrease by up to 61.7% and 13.0%, respectively. It is indicated that effects of connection beam and soil stiffness on settlements of pile foundation are relatively small. When pile diameter is less than 1.4 m, deformations of piled raft foundation decrease substantially as a reduction in the pile diameter. Two dimensional groups are proposed to develop calculation charts of horizontal movements and settlements of pile foundation. The proposed calculation charts can directly estimate movements of piled raft foundation under arbitrary loading, ground and pile conditions.

The essence of subgrade mud pumping under train load is the migration of fine particles in subgrade soil. The migration of fine particles will change the pore structure of overlying ballast, thus affecting the mechanical properties and hydraulic properties of ballast layer. It is of great theoretical significance and engineering value to study the effect of fine particle migration on the pore structure of ballast layer under cyclic loading. In this paper, a tailor-made subgrade mud pumping test model and an X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning equipment were used to study the influence of migration of fine particles in subgrade soil on the pore parameters (plane porosity, volume porosity, pore distribution and pore connectivity) of overlying ballast under cyclic loading. The results show that the compression of ballast pores and the blockage of migrated fine particles make the porosity of ballast layer decreases gradually. And the percentage of small pores in ballast layer increases, while the percentage of large pores decreases; the connectivity of pores also gradually decreases. Based on the test results, an empirical model of ballast porosity evolution under cyclic loading is established and verified.

At present, the research on wave propagation in graphene platelet reinforced composite plates focuses on the propagation behavior of bulk waves, in which the effect of boundary condition is ignored, there is no literature report on propagation behaviors of guided waves in graphene platelet reinforced metal foams (GPLRMF) plates. In fact, wave propagation is affected by boundary conditions, so it is necessary to study the propagation characteristics of guided waves. The aim of this paper is to solve this problem. The effective performance of the material was calculated using the mixing law. Equations of motion of GPLRMF plate is derived by using Hamilton's principle. Then, the eigenvalue method is used to obtain the expressions of bending wave, shear wave and longitudinal wave, and the degradation verification is carried out. Finally, the effects of graphene platelets (GPLs) volume fraction, elastic foundation, porosity coefficient, GPLs distribution types and porosity distribution types on the dispersion relations are studied. We find that these factors play an important role in the propagation characteristics and phase velocity of guided waves.

The investigation of the disc cutter wear prediction has an important guiding role in TBM equipment selection, project planning, and cost forecasting, especially when tunneling in a long-distance rock formations with high strength and high abrasivity. In this study, a comprehensive database of disc cutter wear data, geological properties, and tunneling parameters is obtained from a 1326 m excavated metro tunnel project in leptynite in Shenzhen, China. The failure forms and wear consumption of disc cutters on site are analyzed with emphasis. The results showed that 81% of disc cutters fail due to uniform wear, and other cutters are replaced owing to abnormal wear, especially flat wear of the cutter rings. In addition, it is found that there is a reasonable direct proportional relationship between the uniform wear rate (WR) and the installation radius (R), and the coefficient depends on geological characteristics and tunneling parameters. Thus, a preliminary prediction formula of the uniform wear rate, based on the installation radius of the cutterhead, was established. The correlation between some important geological properties (K_V and UCS) along with some tunneling parameters (F_n and p) and wear rate was discussed using regression analysis methods, and several prediction models for uniform wear rate were developed. Compared with a single variable, the multivariable model shows better prediction ability, and 89% of WR can be accurately estimated. The prediction model has reliability and provides a practical tool for wear prediction of disc cutter under similar hard rock projects with similar geological conditions.