• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.319-334
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• 2024

The current theories on the interaction between surrounding rock and support in deep-buried tunnels do not consider the form of pre-reinforcement support or the flexibility of primary support, leading to a discrepancy between theoretical solutions and practical applications. To address this gap, a comprehensive mechanical model of the tunnel with pre-reinforced rock was established in this study. The equations for internal stress, displacement, and the radius of the plastic zone in the surrounding rock were derived. By understanding the interaction mechanism between flexible support and surrounding rock, the three-dimensional construction analysis solution of the tunnel could be corrected. The validity of the proposed model was verified through numerical simulations. The results indicate that the reduction of pre-deformation significantly influences the final support pressure. The pre-reinforcement support zone primarily inhibits pre-deformation, thereby reducing the support pressure. The support pressure mainly affects the accelerated and uniform movement stage of the surrounding rock. The generation of support pressure is linked to the deformation of the surrounding rock during the accelerated movement stage. Furthermore, the strength of the pre-reinforcement zone of the surrounding rock and the strength of the shotcrete have opposite effects on the support pressure. The parameters of the pre-reinforcement zones and support materials can be optimized to achieve a balance between surrounding rock deformation, support pressure, cost, and safety. Overall, this study provides valuable insights for predicting the deformation of surrounding rock and support pressure during the dynamic construction of deep-buried weak rock tunnels. These findings can guide engineers in improving the construction process, ensuring better safety and cost-effectiveness.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.575-587
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• 2024

The contact pressure between the surrounding rock and the support is an important indicator of the surrounding rock pressure. There has been a bottleneck in the prediction of contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support in deep-buried mountain tunnels. The main reason is that a reliable method wasn't existed to quantify the contact loads. This study had been taken into account the flexible support role of the primary support, and the fitting curve of surrounding rock deformation for dynamic tunnel construction was proposed. New formulas for the calculation of contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support were obtained by inversion. Comparative analysis of the calculation results with numerical simulation verified the reliability of the calculation method in this study. It can be seen from the analyses that the contact load between surrounding rock and primary support increases, remains unchanged and decreases during acceleration, uniform velocity and deceleration, respectively, and the deformation of the surrounding rock in the acceleration and deceleration stages cannot completely converted into contact loads. The contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support of medium-strength and weak surrounding rock tunnels are generally within 150 kPa and 1 MPa, respectively. For tunnels with weak surrounding rock, advanced support can be installed to reduce the unique release coefficient λ₀ and the value of the constant D, with the purpose of reducing the contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support. Changes in support parameters have a small effect on the contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support, but increase or decrease the safety factor, resulting in a waste of resources or a situation that threatens the safety of the support. The results of this research provide guidance for the prediction of contact loads between surrounding rock and primary support for dynamic tunnel construction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.63-77
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• 2017

The failure mechanism of a deep hard rock tunnel under high geostress and high geothermalactivity is extremely complex. Uniaxial compression tests of granite at different temperatures were conducted. The complete stress-strain curves, mechanical parameters and macroscopic failure types of the rock were analyzed in detail. The brittleness index, which represents the possibility of a severe brittleness hazard, is proposed in this paperby comparing the peak stress and the expansion stress. The results show that the temperature range from 20 to $60^{\circ}C$ is able to aggravate the brittle failure of hard rock based on the brittleness index. The closure of internal micro cracks by thermal stress can improve the strength of hard rock and the storage capacity of elastic strain energy. The failure mode ofthe samples changes from shear failure to tensile failure as the temperature increases. In conclusion, the brittle failure mechanism of hard rock under the action of thermal coupling is revealed, and the analysis result offers significant guidance for deep buried tunnels at high temperatures and under high geostress.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2018

This study focused on the mechanical and hydraulic characteristics of underwater tunnels based on Mohr-Coulomb (M-C), Hoek-Brown (H-B) and generalized H-B failure criteria. An improved approach for calculating stress, displacement and plastic radius of the circular tunnel considering hydraulic-mechanical coupling was developed. The innovation of this study was that the radius-incremental-approach was reconstructed (i.e., the whole plastic zone is divided into a finite number of concentric annuli by radius), stress and displacement of each annulus were determined in terms of numerical method and Terzaghi's effective stress principle. The validation of the proposed approach was conducted by comparing with the results in Brown and Bray (1982) and Park and Kim (2006). In addition, the Rp-pin curve (plastic radius-internal supporting pressure curve) was obtained using the numerical iterative method, and the plastic radius of the deep-buried tunnel could be obtained by interpolation method in terms of the known value of internal supporting pressure pin. Combining with the theories in Carranza and Fairhurst (2000), the improved technique for assessing the reliability of the tunnel support was proposed.