• 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.