An efficient physics-guided Bayesian framework for predicting ground settlement profile during excavations in clay

Recently,the application of Bayesian updating to predict excavation-induced deformation has proven successful and improved prediction accuracy significantly.However,updating the ground settlement profile,which is crucial for determining potential damage to nearby infrastructures,has received limited attention.To address this,this paper proposes a physics-guided simplified model combined with a Bayesian updating framework to accurately predict the ground settlement profile.The advantage of this model is that it eliminates the need for complex finite element modeling and makes the updating framework user-friendly.Furthermore,the model is physically interpretable,which can provide valuable references for construction adjustments.The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through two field case studies,showing that it can yield satisfactory predictions for the settlement profile.

Deterministic and probabilistic analysis of great-depth braced excavations:A 32 m excavation case study in Paris

The Fort d’Issy-Vanves-Clamart(FIVC)braced excavation in France is analyzed to provide insights into the geotechnical serviceability assessment of excavations at great depth within deterministic and probabilistic frameworks.The FIVC excavation is excavated at 32 m below the ground surface in Parisian sedimentary basin and a plane-strain finite element analysis is implemented to examine the wall deflections and ground surface settlements.A stochastic finite element method based on the polynomial chaos Kriging metamodel(MSFEM)is then proposed for the probabilistic analyses.Comparisons with field measurements and former studies are carried out.Several academic cases are then conducted to investigate the great-depth excavation stability regarding the maximum horizontal wall deflection and maximum ground surface settlement.The results indicate that the proposed MSFEM is effective for probabilistic analyses and can provide useful insights for the excavation design and construction.A sensitivity analysis for seven considered random parameters is then implemented.The soil friction angle at the excavation bottom layer is the most significant one for design.The soil-wall interaction effects on the excavation stability are also given.

State-of-the-art review of soft computing applications in underground excavations

Soft computing techniques are becoming even more popular and particularly amenable to model the complex behaviors of most geotechnical engineering systems since they have demonstrated superior predictive capacity,compared to the traditional methods.This paper presents an overview of some soft computing techniques as well as their applications in underground excavations.A case study is adopted to compare the predictive performances of soft computing techniques including eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost),Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines(MARS),Artificial Neural Networks(ANN),and Support Vector Machine(SVM) in estimating the maximum lateral wall deflection induced by braced excavation.This study also discusses the merits and the limitations of some soft computing techniques,compared with the conventional approaches available.

Analytical procedure for massive water-sealing barriers used in deep excavations considering seepage effect and its application

This paper presents an analytical procedure for massive water-sealing barriers(MWSBs)that are made of partially overlapped jet-grouting columns used for deep excavations,in which two crucial factors of the permeability and strength of jet-grouted materials are considered.Subsequently,a calculation example is analyzed and discussed.Results show that“tension failure”mechanism is a major concern for the structural failure during a design of MWSBs.The maximum allowable seepage discharge is a crucial index for the design of MWSBs,which has a significant influence on determining the design parameters of MWSBs.Compared with the design procedure for MWSBs that is proposed in this paper,the design parameters of MWSBs determined by the stability equilibrium and seepage stability equilibrium approaches are conservative due to the fact that it fails to consider the permeability or strength of jet-grouted materials that makes a contribution to the structural safety.Based on the proposed design method,the ranges of both the thickness and depth of MWSBs for a case history of subway excavation in Fuzhou,China were determined.Finally,field pumping test results showed that the water-tightness performance of MWSBs performed at site was quite well.

Large excavations and their effect on displacement of land boundaries

A study to estimate land surface movement caused by large surface excavations in sedimentary strata is presented.In stratified or jointed strata the stress relief driven movement adjacent to large excavations can be significantly larger than expected.High lateral stresses measured in Australia and other places around the world indicate that the ratio of horizontal to vertical stress has been particularly high at shallow depths.The in situ strata is in compression and during excavation,stress is relieved towards the opening causing strata movement.Large excavations such as,open cut mines or highway cuttings,can initiate an extensive horizontal slide of surface layers towards the excavation.These ground movements can be damaging to surface structures such as water storage dams and large buildings.Based on stress measurements at shallow depths in Australian coal mines the study presented here calculates and models the extent of potential ground movement along the bedding surface adjacent to large excavations and provides a new prediction tool of land movement at the excavation boundary that can benefit the geotechnical practitioners in the mining industry.

IBIS-FM radar as a tool for monitoring hill slopes during excavations in hydropower projects:A case study from Bhutan Himalayas

Excavation is common in the construction of hydropower projects.Monitoring for both stable and unstable slopes is a pressing requirement during progressive excavations with or without cut-slope support measures.The present study is about an excavation carried out in a proposed concrete gravity dam site on the right bank slope of the Punatsangchhu River in western Bhutan.During the excavation,the right bank abutment witnessed multiple events of slope failures of various magnitudes.One major landslide occurred on 23 July 2013 in the toe of the right abutment,where foliation/multiple sheared/fractured zones/seams in quartz-feldspathic biotite gneiss dip towards the valley.During further excavations/piling works,a subsequent landslide on the downstream,within the body of the July 2013 landslide,occurred on 12 August 2016.As a result,a real-time monitoring of the slope became necessary to facilitate further excavations for achieving the dam foundation.Thus,the advanced slope monitoring instrument like Image By Interferometric Survey e Frequency Modulated(IBIS-FM)radar was deployed for monitoring the right bank slope during the excavation for the construction of~129 m high dam.The displacement of the hill slope is assessed based on this system by monitoring point locations as well as areas by assigning different threshold values for providing timely alerts.This real-time monitoring was effective in identifying the reactivation of August 2016 landslide that occurred on 22 January 2019.Thus,this study showcases the efficiency of IBIS-FM radar in monitoring slope instability with sub-millimeter accuracy on a near real-time basis.

Important Consequences of Stress Release in the Stability of Excavations

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Redistribution and magnitude of stresses around horse shoe and circular excavations opened in anisotropic rock

In this paper numerical analysis of underground structures, taking account the transverse isotropy system of rocks, was done using CAST 3M code by varying the shape of excavation and the coefficient of earth pressure k. Numerical results reveal that the anisotropy behavior, the shape of hole and the coefficient of earth pressure k have significant influence to the mining induced stress field and rock deformations which directly control the stability of underground excavation design. The magnitude of horizontal stress obtained for the horse shoe shape excavation(25.2 MPa for k = 1; 52.7 MPa for k = 2)is lower than the magnitude obtained for circular hole(26.4 MPa for k = 1; 59.5 MPa for k = 2).Therefore, we have concluded that the horse shoe shape offers the best stability and the best design for engineer. The anisotropy system presented by rock mass can also influence the redistribution of stresses around hole opened. Numerical results have revealed that the magnitude of redistribution of horizontal stresses obtained for transverse isotropic rock(12.1 MPa for k = 0.5; 25.2 MPa for k = 1 and52.7 MPa for k = 2) is less than those obtained in the case of isotropic rock(27.6 MPa for k = 1;48.6 MPa for k = 2 and 90.81 MPa for k = 2). The more the rock has the anisotropic behavior, the more the mass of rock around the tunnel is stable.

Optimized functional linked neural network for predicting diaphragm wall deflection induced by braced excavations in clays

Deep excavation during the construction of underground systems can cause movement on the ground,especially in soft clay layers.At high levels,excessive ground movements can lead to severe damage to adjacent structures.In this study,finite element analyses(FEM)and the hardening small strain(HSS)model were performed to investigate the deflection of the diaphragm wall in the soft clay layer induced by braced excavations.Different geometric and mechanical properties of the wall were investigated to study the deflection behavior of the wall in soft clays.Accordingly,1090 hypothetical cases were surveyed and simulated based on the HSS model and FEM to evaluate the wall deflection behavior.The results were then used to develop an intelligent model for predicting wall deflection using the functional linked neural network(FLNN)with different functional expansions and activation functions.Although the FLNN is a novel approach to predict wall deflection;however,in order to improve the accuracy of the FLNN model in predicting wall deflection,three swarm-based optimization algorithms,such as artificial bee colony(ABC),Harris’s hawk’s optimization(HHO),and hunger games search(HGS),were hybridized to the FLNN model to generate three novel intelligent models,namely ABC-FLNN,HHO-FLNN,HGS-FLNN.The results of the hybrid models were then compared with the basic FLNN and MLP models.They revealed that FLNN is a good solution for predicting wall deflection,and the application of different functional expansions and activation functions has a significant effect on the outcome predictions of the wall deflection.It is remarkably interesting that the performance of the FLNN model was better than the MLP model with a mean absolute error(MAE)of 19.971,root-mean-squared error(RMSE)of 24.574,and determination coefficient(R^(2))of 0.878.Meanwhile,the performance of the MLP model only obtained an MAE of 20.321,RMSE of 27.091,and R^(2)of 0.851.Furthermore,the results also indicated that the proposed hybrid models,i.e.,ABC-FLNN,HHO-FLNN,HGS-FLNN,yielded more superior performances than those of the FLNN and MLP models in terms of the prediction of deflection behavior of diaphragm walls with an MAE in the range of 11.877 to 12.239,RMSE in the range of 15.821 to 16.045,and R^(2)in the range of 0.949 to 0.951.They can be used as an alternative tool to simulate diaphragm wall deflections under different conditions with a high degree of accuracy.

Fracture development around deep underground excavations: Insights from FDEM modelling

Over the past twenty years, there has been a growing interest in the development of numerical modelsthat can realistically capture the progressive failure of rock masses. In particular, the investigation ofdamage development around underground excavations represents a key issue in several rock engineeringapplications, including tunnelling, mining, drilling, hydroelectric power generation, and the deepgeological disposal of nuclear waste. The goal of this paper is to show the effectiveness of a hybrid finitediscreteelement method （FDEM） code to simulate the fracturing mechanisms associated with theexcavation of underground openings in brittle rock formations. A brief review of the current state-of-theartmodelling approaches is initially provided, including the description of selecting continuum- anddiscontinuum-based techniques. Then, the influence of a number of factors, including mechanical and insitu stress anisotropy, as well as excavation geometry, on the simulated damage is analysed for threedifferent geomechanical scenarios. Firstly, the fracture nucleation and growth process under isotropicrock mass conditions is simulated for a circular shaft. Secondly, the influence of mechanical anisotropy onthe development of an excavation damaged zone （EDZ） around a tunnel excavated in a layered rockformation is considered. Finally, the interaction mechanisms between two large caverns of an undergroundhydroelectric power station are investigated, with particular emphasis on the rock mass responsesensitivity to the pillar width and excavation sequence. Overall, the numerical results indicate that FDEMsimulations can provide unique geomechanical insights in cases where an explicit consideration offracture and fragmentation processes is of paramount importance. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of Talus Deposit Excavations on Hydrogeochemical Characteristics of Kuvars Spring Water, Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey

Spring waters consumed for drinking purposes should be clean and quality. These waters with balanced mineral distribution, which do not contain organic substances, whose physical and chemical caharacteristics comply with certain quality parameters and which do not negatively affect human health are identified as healthy water. Kuvars water is a spring water which is pumped out from the draw well at the Camurluk stream basin of Maltepe province of Istanbul and filled into bottles. The Camurluk stream basin is approximately 4.5 km2. The Camurluk stream basin is sedimentary rocks and talus deposit outcrops. Reaching of trace elements, which is found more in the talus deposit samples than outcropping quartzarenite at the basin, to underground aquifer as ions under effect of rains, water rock interaction, leakage and filtration, is prevented by illite type clay levels existing within the talus deposit stack, which have upto 20 cm thickness. However, negative effects of the excavation that were made at the talus deposit reflect on the hydrologic cycle and chemical compositions of well waters. This effect was at first negatively affected the physical characteristics of the well waters. During the rainy periods, the water in the excavated area which was enriched with respect to the suspended sediments was percolated into the groundwaters from the joints and cracks of the quartzarenite. The turbidity value measured in the well waters of K2 and K3 were determined as 40.3 NTU and 34.2 NTU respectively. Although at the basin, the aquifer of underground water and the well waters being managed are quartzarenite, the fact that water types belonging to well waters differ (they are not same) according to the Piper diagram and when the heavy metal content of the water of well numbered KS1 is taken as basis, that some heavy metals such as Al3+, Fe2+, Ni2+, Mn2+ and Cu2+ be enriched 3 to 40 times in KS2 and KS3 well waters, are caused by talus deposit—water interaction at the excavation area. After a rainfall, in the water that became turbid with the water-talus deposit interaction at the excavation area, the water-mineral interaction has caused the limit value for drinking water suggested by World Health Organization (WHO) to be exceeded with the Al3+ concentration of 189 ppb detected in KS2 well water and Fe2+ concentration of 185 ppb has caused to approach the drinking water limit value of 200 ppb permitted by World Health Organization (WHO), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), European Union (EU) and Turkish Standards (TS). Therefore, at the water basins where bottled spring waters consumed for drinking purposes are produced, technical undertakings that shall disturb the stability of geological units should not be permitted.

Diagnosis of Large Papillary Excavations in Developing Countries: From Automated Visual Field to OCT of the Ganglion Complex. About a Case

Background: Large papillary excavations constitute a true differential diagnosis of glaucoma in our environments. Aim: To present a clinical case of large papillary excavation simulating glaucomatous optic neuropathy in a young subject. Case Presentation: The ophthalmologic examination made it possible to note a visual acuity of LogMar 0.00, ocular hypertonia and a large papillary excavation in both eyes. The visual field noted bilateral perimetric involvement suggesting optic neuropathy. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the ganglion complex revealed an absence of involvement of the ganglion complex and the ganglion ridge essential to evoke optic neuropathy. An ocular hypotonizing treatment made it possible to normalize the intraocular pressure. Conclusion: The particularity of this observation lies in the fact that the perimeter involvement that preceded any involvement can simulate a glaucomatous involvement. Functional damage to the visual field must be correlated with structural damage to suggest glaucomatous damage in our ophthalmic patients.

Umbrella Arching and Compensation Grouting in Order to Protect Settlement-Sensitive Buildings over Large Shotcrete Excavations in Gravel

The Tunnel Oberau, with a length of 2.9 km, forms the core of the local bypass of Oberau. Between the two massifs Kirchbichl and Mühlberg, the tunnel is situated in the valley of the Gießenbach in alluvial gravel with only a small overlap underneath settlement-sensitive buildings. In this paper, the measures in the tunnel to minimize the settlements of the buildings during the shotcrete excavations are described. Basis for this planning were extensive 3D-FE-calculations. Furthermore, under two buildings a compensation grouting measure was carried out, in order to compensate the occurring settlements. This paper describes how the required time and the amount of injection material (grout) could be reduced during the compensation grouting in highly permeable gravel.

Deep Foundation Pit Excavations Adjacent to Disconnected Piled Rafts: A Review on Risk Control Practice

Foundation pit excavation engineering is an old subject full of decision making. Yet, it still deserves further research due to the associated high failure cost and the complexity of the geological conditions and/or the surrounding existing infrastructure around it. This article overviews the risk control practice of foundation pit excavation projects in close proximity to existing disconnected piled raft. More focus is given to geotechnical aspects. The review begins with achievements to ensure excavation performance requirements, and follows to discuss the complex soil structure interaction involved among the fundamental components: the retaining wall, mat, piles, cushion, and the soil. After bringing consensus points to practicing engineers and decision makers, it then suggests possible future research directions.

Hybrid stacking ensemble algorithm and simulated annealing optimization for stability evaluation of underground entry-type excavations

The stability of underground entry-type excavations(UETEs)is of paramount importance for ensuring the safety of mining operations.As more engineering cases are accumulated,machine learning(ML)has demonstrated great potential for the stability evaluation of UETEs.In this study,a hybrid stacking ensemble method aggregating support vector machine(SVM),k-nearest neighbor(KNN),decision tree(DT),random forest(RF),multilayer perceptron neural network(MLPNN)and extreme gradient boosting(XGBoost)algorithms was proposed to assess the stability of UETEs.Firstly,a total of 399 historical cases with two indicators were collected from seven mines.Subsequently,to pursue better evaluation performance,the hyperparameters of base learners(SVM,KNN,DT,RF,MLPNN and XGBoost)and meta learner(MLPNN)were tuned by combining a five-fold cross validation(CV)and simulated annealing(SA)approach.Based on the optimal hyperparameters configuration,the stacking ensemble models were constructed using the training set(75%of the data).Finally,the performance of the proposed approach was evaluated by two global metrics(accuracy and Cohen’s Kappa)and three within-class metrics(macro average of the precision,recall and F1-score)on the test set(25%of the data).In addition,the evaluation results were compared with six base learners optimized by SA.The hybrid stacking ensemble algorithm achieved better comprehensive performance with the accuracy,Kappa coefficient,macro average of the precision,recall and F1-score were 0.92,0.851,0.885,0.88 and 0.883,respectively.The rock mass rating(RMR)had the most important influence on evaluation results.Moreover,the critical span graph(CSG)was updated based on the proposed model,representing a significant improvement compared with the previous studies.This study can provide valuable guidance for stability analysis and risk management of UETEs.However,it is necessary to consider more indicators and collect more extensive and balanced dataset to validate the model in future.

Stability prediction of underground entry-type excavations based on particle swarm optimization and gradient boosting decision tree

The stability of underground entry-type excavations will directly affect the working environment and the safety of staff.Empirical critical span graphs and traditional statistics learning methods can not meet the requirements of high accuracy for stability assessment of entry-type excavations.Therefore,this study proposes a new prediction method based on machine learning to scientifically adjust the critical span graph.Accordingly,the particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm is used to optimize the core parameters of the gradient boosting decision tree(GBDT),abbreviated as PSO-GBDT.Moreover,the classification performance of eight other classifiers including GDBT,k-nearest neighbors(KNN),two kinds of support vector machines(SVM),Gaussian naive Bayes(GNB),logistic regression(LR)and linear discriminant analysis(LDA)are also applied to compare with the proposed model.Findings revealed that compared with the other eight models,the prediction performance of PSO-GBDT is undoubtedly the most reliable,and its classification accuracy is up to 0.93.Therefore,this model has great potential to provide a more scientific and accurate choice for the stability prediction of underground excavations.In addition,each classification model is used to predict the stability category of several grid points divided by the critical span graph,and the updated critical span graph of each model is discussed in combination with previous studies.The results show that the PSO-GBDT model has the advantages of being scientific,accurate and efficient in updating the critical span graph,and its output decision boundary has strict theoretical support,which can help mine operators make favorable economic decisions.

Reliability assessment of deep excavations in spatially random cohesion weakening friction strengthening massive rocks:Application to nuclear repositories

An augmented methodology is developed to estimate the reliability of deep excavations along spatially variable massive rock masses using the cohesion weakening friction strengthening(CWFS)model.Sensitive parameters of the CWFS model were initially identified using Sobol’s global sensitivity analysis based on their influence on the displacements and excavation damage zone around excavations.The probability of failure was estimated by performing Mont–Carlo Simulations on random finite difference models of excavations generated via MATLAB-FLAC2D coupling,considering the spatial variation of these sensitive parameters.Spatial variation was modeled by generating anisotropic random fields of sensitive CWFS parameters via the recently developed Fourier series method and updated correlations suggested by Walton(2019).The proposed methodology was demonstrated for a proposed deep nuclear waste repository to be located in Canada.Results from the developed methodology were systematically compared with those of traditional reliability(ignoring spatial variation)and deterministic methods(ignoring uncertainty).Although the developed methodology was computationally complex,it was judged to be the most realistic due to the realistic consideration of heterogeneous distributions of rock properties.Traditional methodologies underestimate/overestimate the excavation performance due to negligence of uncertainty and spatial variability.Finally,a parametric analysis was performed using developed methodology by varying the initial friction angle,scale of fluctuations(SOFs)and dilation angle.The effect of initial friction angle was observed to be more pronounced on the probability of failures as compared to SOFs and dilation angle.Similar observations were made related to the excavation damage zone(EDZ)development quantified using yield area ratio.

Rockburst criterion and evaluation method for potential rockburst pit depth considering excavation damage effect

Excavation-induced disturbances in deep tunnels will lead to deterioration of rock properties and formation of excavation damaged zone(EDZ).This excavation damage effect may affect the potential rockburst pit depth.Taking two diversion tunnels of Jinping II hydropower station for example,the relationship between rockburst pit depth and excavation damage effect is first surveyed.The results indicate that the rockburst pit depth in tunnels with severe damage to rock masses is relatively large.Subsequently,the excavation-induced damage effect is characterized by disturbance factor D based on the Hoek-Brown criterion and wave velocity method.It is found that the EDZ could be further divided into a high-damage zone(HDZ)with D=1 and weak-damage zone(WDZ),and D decays from one to zero linearly.For this,a quantitative evaluation method for potential rockburst pit depth is established by presenting a three-element rockburst criterion considering rock strength,geostress and disturbance factor.The evaluation results obtained by this method match well with actual observations.In addition,the weakening of rock mass strength promotes the formation and expansion of potential rockburst pits.The potential rockburst pit depth is positively correlated with HDZ and WDZ depths,and the HDZ depth has a significant contribution to the potential rockburst pit depth.

Effect of slope angle on fractured rock masses under combined influence of variable rainfall infiltration and excavation unloading

Intense precipitation infiltration and intricate excavation processes are crucial factors that impact the stability and security of towering and steep rock slopes within mining sites.The primary aim of this research was to investigate the progression of cumulative failure within a cracked rock formation,considering the combined effects of precipitation and excavation activities.The study was conducted in the Huangniuqian eastern mining area of the Dexing Copper Mine in Jiangxi Province,China.An engineering geological investigation was conducted,a physical model experiment was performed,numerical calculations and theoretical analysis were conducted using the matrix discrete element method(Mat-DEM),and the deformation characteristics and the effect of the slope angle of a fractured rock mass under different scenarios were examined.The failure and instability mechanisms of the fractured rock mass under three slope angle models were analyzed.The experimental results indicate that as the slope angle increases,the combined effect of rainfall infiltration and excavation unloading is reduced.A novel approach to simulating unsaturated seepage in a rock mass,based on the van Genuchten model(VGM),has been developed.Compared to the vertical displacement observed in a similar physical experiment,the average relative errors associated with the slope angles of 45,50,and 55were 2.094%,1.916%,and 2.328%,respectively.Accordingly,the combined effect of rainfall and excavation was determined using the proposed method.Moreover,the accuracy of the numerical simulation was validated.The findings contribute to the seepage field in a meaningful way,offering insight that can inform and enhance existing methods and theories for research on the underlying mechanism of ultra-high and steep rock slope instability,which can inform the development of more effective risk management strategies.