Stability evaluation method of large cross-section tunnel considering modification of thickness-span ratio in mechanized operation

Purpose-This study aims to research the large cross-section tunnel stability evaluation method corrected after considering the thickness-span ratio.Design/methodology/approach-First,taking the Liuyuan Tunnel of Huanggang-Huangmei High-Speed Railway as an example and taking deflection of the third principal stress of the surrounding rock at a vault after tunnel excavation as the criterion,the critical buried depth of the large section tunnel was determined.Then,the strength reduction method was employed to calculate the tunnel safety factor under different rock classes and thickness-span ratios,and mathematical statistics was conducted to identify the relationships of the tunnel safety factor with the thickness-span ratio and the basic quality(BQ)index of the rock for different rock classes.Finally,the influences of thickness-span ratio,groundwater,initial stress of rock and structural attitude factors were considered to obtain the corrected BQ,based on which the stability of a large cross-section tunnel with a depth of more than 100 m during mechanized operation was analyzed.This evaluation method was then applied to Liuyuan Tunnel and Cimushan No.2 Tunnel of Chongqing Urban Expressway for verification.Findings-This study shows that under different rock classes,the tunnel safety factor is a strict power function of the thickness-span ratio,while a linear function of the BQ to some extent.It is more suitable to use the corrected BQ as a quantitative index to evaluate tunnel stability according to the actual conditions of the site.Originality/value-The existing industry standards do not consider the influence of buried depth and span in the evaluation of tunnel stability.The stability evaluation method of large section tunnel considering the correction of overburden span ratio proposed in this paper achieves higher accuracy for the stability evaluation of surrounding rock in a full or large-section mechanized excavation of double line high-speed railway tunnels.

Effect of electrochemical reactions droplet metal in direct current on oxygen contamination of submerged arc welding

Agglomerated fluxes with different basicity index designed in laboratory were used to study electrochemical reactions between slag and metal in submerged arc welding under both power polarities. The droplet metal oxygen and nitrogen contents were measured using oxygen-nitrogen instrument in order to analyze indirectly metallurgy electrochemical reactions taking place in cathode and anode of welding arc. The results show that just in the period of droplet growth at the tip of consumable electrode the electrochemical oxygen contamination is produced in the case of direct current electrode positive polarity whereas electrochemical oxygen lost in electrode negative polarity. Furthermore, the results indicate that the basicity index of molten slag has great influence upon electrochemical reaction. With basicity index increasing, the effect of oxygen transferring resulted from electrochemistry becomes more evident for reacting dynamics depended on ion characteristics of molten slag. The effect of basicity index on metal-slag electrochemical reaction is contrary to traditional thermo-chemical reaction and therefore it is necessary to be considered as a metallurgy factor.