• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.543-561
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• 2020

This paper is the result of the study on the effect of the support structure of the tunnel steel rib. In tunnel excavation, the top and bottom half excavation methods result in subsidence of steel rib reinforcement due to insufficient support of steel rib reinforcement when the ground is poor after excavation. The foundation of the steel rib installed in the upper half excavates the bottom part of the base, causing the subsidence to occur due to various effects such as internal load and lateral pressure. As a result, the tunnel is difficult to maintain and its safety is problematic. To solve these problems, steel rib support structures have been developed. For the purpose of verification, the behavior of the supporting structure is verified by model experiments reduced to shotcrete and steel rib material similarity, the numerical analysis of ΔP and ΔP generated by bottom excavation by Terzaghi theoretical equation. As a result, it was found that the support structure of 20.100~198.423 kN is required for the 10~40 m section of the depth for each soil of weathered soil~soft rock. In addition, as a result of the reduced model experiment, a fixed level of 50% steel rib deposit of steel rib support structure was installed. The study shows that the installation of steel rib support structures will compensate for uncertainties and various problems during construction. It is also thought that the installation of steel rib support structure will have many effects such as stability, economy, and air reduction.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.5C
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• pp.221-229
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• 2012

Steel ribs such as H-beam or lattice girder are often reinforced to secure the stability of NATM tunnel when the ground is in the bad condition. When designing, however, steel ribs are not often taken into consideration on the numerical analysis when they are regarded as temporary tunnel supports until shotcrete shows its best performance or if they are, there are various modeling methods. This study shows behavior and loading capacity of steel ribs and shotcrete through the strength test on the bending, pressure and full-scaled. Also, we conducted and analyzed the experiment of composite member consisting of shotcrete and steel ribs under the same condition. Through the result, we can find the fact that shotcrete and steel ribs do not work as one unit because of slipping on the boundary. Also, when numerical analyzing, it was concluded that steel ribs cover all bending moment and shotcrete and steel ribs share with axial force according to the compressive strength.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.357-367
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• 2017

Bending and axial forces simultaneously occur at the cross-section of a shotcrete lining reinforced with steel supports due to the tunnel geometry. The shotcrete has changing flexural stiffness depending on the axial forces and, as a result, severely nonlinear behavior. The mechanical properties of a shotcrete-steel composite also depend on the type of steel support. This study presents a fiber section element model considering the effect of axial force to evaluate the nonlinear behavior of a shotcrete-steel composite. Additionally, the model was used to analyze the effects of different types of steel supports on the load capacity. Furthermore, a modified hyperbolic model for ground reaction, including strain-softening, is proposed to account for the ground-lining interaction. The model was validated by comparing the numerical results with results from previous load test performed on arched shotcrete specimens. The changes in mechanical responses of the lining were also investigated. Results show a lining with doubly reinforcement rebar has similar load capacity as a lining with H-shaped supports. The use of more materials for the steel support enhances the residual resistance. For all types of steel reinforcement, the contribution of steel supports during peak load decreases as the ground becomes stiffer.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2008

In general, the effects of steel ribs are not considered in the numerical analysis of tunnel design. However, attempts have been increased recently to consider these effects in the analysis of shallow tunnels in soft ground, based on the fact that the steel ribs embedded in the shotcrete take a role to support some portion of the redistributed load due to excavation. In such analyses, the steel ribs can be considered in four different methods: (1) a conventional method where the steel ribs are not considered, (2) a method using the equivalent composite cross section in which the bending moment of shotcrete is not considered, (3) a method using the equivalent composite cross section in which both the compressive stress and the bending moment for the shotcrete and steel rib are considered, and (4) a method using beam elements for the shotcrete and the steel rib, respectively. These methods are adopted in the numerical analysis using FLAC 2D to investigate stresses of both the shotcrete and the steel rib. The overall results show that the analyses are more practical and economical when the effects of steel rib are considered fer the methods (2), (3), and (4). Since the results of those analyses considering steel rib capacity may be different according to the ground condition, it will be necessary to consider the appropriate method among them in accordance with design conditions.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.395-411
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• 2011

This paper presents a new supporting system using steel ribs. In order to perform this research, experimental and numerical studies were performed. In the experimental study, the scaled model tests for the new supporting system consisting of the steel ribs and rock bolts were carried and compared with the conventional existing supporting system. The numerical simulation was carried out to evaluate the new supporting system to verify the experimental results. It was found that the new tunnel supporting system will reduce the tunnel damage.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 2008

The steel rib, one of the main support of tunnel, plays a very important role to stabilize tunnel excavation surface until shotcrete or rockbolt starts to perform a supporting function. In general, a steel rib at the horizontal funnel is being installed in the direction of gravity which is known favorable in terms of constructability and stability. However, as the direction of principal stress at the inclined tunnel wall is different from that of gravity, the optimum direction of steel rib could be different from that at the horizontal tunnel. In this study, a numerical method was used to analyze the direction of force that would develope displacement at the inclined tunnel surface, and that direction could be the optimum direction of steel rib. The support efficiency of steel rib could be maximized when the steel rib was installed to resist the displacement of the tunnel. Three directions which were recommended for the inclined tunnels in the Korea Tunnel Design Standard were used for the numerical models of steel rib direction. In conclusion, the results show that all displacement angle of the models are almost perpendicular to the tunnel surface regardless of face angle. So if the steel rib would be installed perpendicular to the inclined tunnel surface, the support efficiency of steel rib could be maximized.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.226-238
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• 2008

The steel ribs which are used to enhance the supporting capability of the shotcrete are estimated to be very effective, but their characteristics depending on the types of steel support are not well understood enough to be considered in the design stage. This paper describes the behavior of the shotcrete reinforced by various types of steel supports. Through flexural toughness test, major strength parameters such as flexural tensile strength, equivalent flexural tensile strength and residual tensile strength were obtained and used in the numerical analyses. Test results show that steel rebar was not as dependable as H-beam or lattice girder but close examination of the test results revealed that the specimen was failed in shear because of the shorter span than desired. Therefore tests on the properly dimensioned specimens are necessary for valid evaluation of the steel rebar reinforced shotcrete. In the first set of numerical stability analyses, shotcrete and steel supports were modelled separately. Then compared with the second set of analyses in which shotcrete and steel supports were regarded as a composite material. The two results coincided reasonably and this equivalent model turned out to be useful.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.267-278
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• 2012

In general, the H-shaped steel ribs or triangular lattice girders have been mostly used in constructing tunnels through the NATM construction method. The H-shaped steel rib has higher flexural and axial strength than the triangular lattice girder, but many unexpected gaps can occur in the concrete lining system after shotcreting if the H-shaped steel rib is used as the support system. To achieve better shotcreting quality, the triangular lattice girder was developed. However, in general, the triangle lattice girder has low flexural and axial strength. Likewise, the triangular lattice girder, which has circular sectional members, has so many fractures from welded points at the joints between the members. Finally, the new type of tetragonal lattice girder was developed to overcome those problems. In this study, the structural performance of the tetragonal lattice girders was evaluated through analytical and experimental studies. In the analytical studies, the four-point bending analysis, the traditional evaluation method to determine the flexural strength of the lattice girder, was performed. Moreover, the linear-elastic analysis and stability analysis of the arch structure made by the lattice girders were performed to measure structural performance. Experiments were likewise performed to compare the structural performances of the tetragonal girder with traditional triangular lattice girders.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.31-37
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• 2023

Since tunnels are built underground, it is impossible to check visually the location and degree of deterioration of steel ribs. Therefore, in tunnel maintenance, GPR images are generally used to detect steel ribs. While research on GPR image analysis employing artificial neural networks has primarily focused on detecting underground pipes and road damage, there have been limited applications for analyzing tunnel GPR data, specifically for steel rib detection, both internationally and domestically. In this study, a one-step object detection algorithm called YOLO, based on a convolutional neural network, was utilized to automate the localization of steel ribs using GPR data. The performance of the algorithm is then analyzed. Two datasets were employed for the analysis. A dataset comprising 512 original images and another dataset consisting of 2,048 augmented images. The omission rate, which represents the ratio of undetected steel ribs to the total number of steel ribs, was 0.38% for the model using the augmented data, whereas the omission rate for the model using only the original data was 7.18%. Thus, from an automation standpoint, it is more practical to employ an augmented dataset.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.204-213
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• 1999

NATM(New Austrian Tunnelling Method) uses a support system of shotcrete, rockbolt and steel support, which are installed after tunnel excavation. Recently, a lattice girder among these support system is used in tunnelling. A lattice girder is a new steel support developed in Europe for the replacement of an existing H-shaped steel set, which is reported to have some problems in installation. This is a triangular shape welded with steel rods and is a light-weight support system which enables fast and easy installation of porepolling. The major advantage of a lattice girder is the good bonding with shotcrete. In this study, to evaluate the applicability of a lattice girder in tunnelling in Korea, field tests were performed at a high speed railway tunnel with a large section. Also, features of lattice girder in field tests were compared with those of a H-shaped steel set respectively. Field tests proved that a lattice girder fully supported the initial earth pressure developed right after excavation and limited ground deformation effectively.