Effect of pre-tensioned rock bolts on stress redistribution around a roadway—insight from numerical modeling

The importance of the pre-tensioned force of rock bolts has been recognized by more and more researchers. To investi- gate the effect of pre-tensioned rock bolts on stress redistribution around roadways, a numerical analysis was carried out using FLAC3D and a special post-process methodology, using surfer, is proposed to process the numerical simulation results. The results indicate that pre-tensioned rock bolts have a significant effect on stress redistribution around a roadway. In the roof, pre-tensioned rock bolts greatly increase vertical stress; as a result, the strength of the rock mass increased significantly which results in a greater capacity of bearing a large horizontal stress. The horizontal stress decreases in the upper section of the roof, indicating that pre-tensioned rock bolts significantly reduce the coefficient and the size of the region concentration of horizontal stress. At the lat- eral side, pre-tensioned rock bolts greatly increase the horizontal stress; therefore, the rock mass strength significantly increases which results also in a greater capacity of bearing a large vertical stress. The greater the size of pre-tensioned force, the larger the region of stress redistribution around a roadway is affected and the higher the size of the stress on the roadway surface the more the rock mass strength increases.

Stress redistribution of simply supported reinforced concrete beams under fire conditions

This study presents experimental and numerical investigations of simply supported steel reinforced concrete(RC)beams under fire.The temperature field of cross sections,the vertical deflection at mid-span,and specifically the axial expansion displacement at beam-ends were measured during the fire tests.A novel finite element(FE)model of a RC beam under fire was developed,in which the water loss in the heat transfer analysis and the concrete transient strain in the mechanical analysis were considered.Based on the validated FE model proposed in this study,parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effects of the beam type,the protective layer thickness,and the load ratio on the thermal and mechanical behavior of simply supported RC beams.It was found that greater fire resistance and fire performance of girder beams in comparison to secondary beams contributed to the non-structural reinforcements,which effectively compensated for the reduced tensile capacities of structural reinforcements because of the degradation of the material properties.In addition,the history of normal stress distributions of concrete under fire can be divided into three phases:expansion,stress redistribution and plateau phases.

Numerical analysis of the effects of rock bolts on stress redistribution around a roadway

Besides opening geometry, in situ stress and material properties, opening support also has significant effects on stress redistribution around a roadway. To investigate these effects of rock bolts on the stress redistribution around a roadway, a series of numerical studies were carried out using the finite difference method. Since the stress changes around a roadway caused by rock bolting is small relative to the in situ stress, they cannot obviously be observed in stress contour plots. To overcome this difficulty, a new result processing methodology was developed using the contouring program Surfer. With this methodology, the effects of rock bolts on stress redistribution can obviously be analyzed. Numerical results show that in the three patterns of rock bolts installed in the roof, in the roof and the two lateral sides, and in all the four sides of the rectangular roadway, the maximum stress magnitude of the increase is 0.931 MPa, 2.46 MPa,and 6.5 MPa, respectively; the bolt number of 5 can form an integrated ground arch; the appropriate length and pre-tensioned force of the rock bolt is 2.0 m and 60 k N, respectively. What is more, the ground arch action under the function of rock bolting is able to be effectively examined. The rock bolts dramatically increase the minor principal stress around a roadway which results in significant increase in material strength. Consequently, the major principal stress that the material can carry will greatly increase.With adequate supports, an integrated ground arch which is critical for the stability of roadway will be formed around the roadway.

Stress characteristics of surrounding rocks for inner water exosmosis in high-pressure hydraulic tunnels

Seepage and stress redistribution are the main factors affecting the stability of surrounding rock in high-pressure hydraulic tunnels.In this work,the effects of the seepage field were firstly simplified as a seepage factor acting on the stress field,and the equilibrium equation of high pressure inner water exosmosis was established based on physical theory.Then,the plane strain theory was used to solve the problem of elasticity,and the analytic expression of surrounding rock stress was obtained.On the basis of criterion of Norway,the influences of seepage,pore water pressure and buried depth on the characteristics of the stress distribution of surrounding rocks were studied.The analyses show that the first water-filling plays a decisive role in the stability of the surrounding rock; the influence of seepage on the stress field around the tunnel is the greatest,and the change of the seepage factor is approximately consistent with the logarithm divergence.With the effects of the rock pore water pressure,the circumferential stress shows the exchange between large and small,but the radial stress does not.Increasing the buried depth can enhance the arching effect of the surrounding rock,thus improving the stability.

Fatigue Damage Modeling for Partially Prestressed Concrete Beams under Repeated Loadings with Variable Amplitude

A full-range nonlinear analysis method for fatigue damage in prestressed concrete beams is presented. New damage accumulation models are proposed to describe the fatigue damage evolution in concrete and reinforcement respectively. Based on the stress analysis for cross section, the stress redistrbution in the fatigue damage process, due to the different damage mechanisms of concrete and reinforcement, is considered. The nonlinear damage analysis is achieved by means of piecewise linearity, and it is applicable on the condition of repeated loadings with variable amplitude. Fatigue damage modeling of a beam is implemented to illustrate that the proposed method can preferably fit the experimental results.

Influence of Fatigue Loading on the Residual Stress Distribution in Prestressing Steel Wires

This paper analyzes the influence of fatigue loading on the residual stress profile in high strength steel wires. To this end, different sinusoidal loads with diverse values of maximum loading level and number of cycles were simulated on wires in which several residual stress profiles had been previously introduced, some of them with a tensile state and others with a compressive state. An analysis was made of the evolution with time of such residual stress laws by comparing them at key instants of loading, that is, at initial instant, at maximum load, at minimum load and at final instant. Numerical results show only a minor influence of fatigue loading on the residual stress profile.

Passive seismic velocity tomography on longwall mining panel based on simultaneous iterative reconstructive technique (SIRT)

Mining operation, especially underground coal mining, always has the remarkable risks of ground control. Passive seismic velocity tomography based on simultaneous iterative reconstructive technique （SIRT） inversion is used to deduce the stress redistribution around the longwall mining panel. The mining-induced microseismic events were recorded by mounting an array of receivers on the surface, above the active panel. After processing and filtering the seismic data, the three-dimensional tomography images of the p-wave velocity variations by SIRT passive seismic velocity tomography were provided. To display the velocity changes on coal seam level and subsequently to infer the stress redistribution, these three-dimensional tomograms into the coal seam level were sliced. In addition, the boundary element method （BEM） was used to simulate the stress redistribution. The results show that the inferred stresses from the passive seismic tomograms are conformed to numerical models and theoretical concept of the stress redistribution around the longwall panel. In velocity tomograms, the main zones of the stress redistribution arotmd the panel, including front and side abutment pressures, and gob stress are obvious and also the movement of stress zones along the face advancement is evident. Moreover, the effect of the advance rate of the face on the stress redistribution is demonstrated in tomography images. The research result proves that the SIRT passive seismic velocity tomography has an ultimate potential for monitoring the changes of stress redistribution around the longwall mining panel continuously and subsequently to improve safety of mining operations.

Effect of insufficient tunnel crown thickness on the post-tensioned concrete lining of the Yellow River Crossing Tunnel and its strengthening schemes

The effect of deficiency in tunnel crown thickness on the Yellow River Crossing Tunnel with post-tensioned concrete inner lining was investigated by the elasto-plastic finite element method. Changes in the deformations and circumferential stresses of the post-tensioned concrete inner lining with the gradual decrease of the tunnel crown thickness were compared, and the potential bearing risk of insufficient tunnel crown thickness for the Yellow River Crossing Tunnel was revealed. Based on the finite element calculation results of circumferential stresses under different defective cases, the corresponding reinforcement schemes were proposed. The calculation results show that the inner lining can still maintain a satisfactory stress state when the tunnel crown thickness is equal to or greater than 0. 28 m. When the tunnel crown thickness decreases below 0.28 m, the external surface of the crown and internal surface of the crown＇s adjacent areas may be under tension. The tension stresses will incrementally increase and ultimately exceed the tensile strength of the inner lining concrete as the tunnel crown thickness further decreases gradually. Then, the Yellow River Crossing Tunnel cannot operate normally, and severe cracking, leaking or even failure may occur. When the tunnel crown thickness is equal to or greater than 0.28 m, the reinforcement suggestions are that the void spaces between the inner lining and the outer lining should be back-filled with concrete. When the tunnel crown thickness is less than 0. 28 m, the inner lining should be reinforced by steel plates after concrete back-filling.

Tensile Fracture Mechanism of Claviform Hybrid Composite Rebar

Based on the shear-lag theory, a hexagonal model of fiber bundles was established to study the tensile fracture mechanism of a claviform hybrid composite rebar. Firstly, the stress redistributions are investigated on two conditions： one condition is that interfacial damage is taken into account and the other is not. Then, a micro-statistical analysis of the multiple tensile failures of the rebar was performed by using the random critical-core theory. The results indicate that the predictions of the tensile failure strains of the rebar, in which the interfacial damage is taken into account, are in better agreement with the existing experimental results than those when only elastic case is considered. Through the comparison between the theoretical and experimental results, the shear-lag theory and the model are verified feasibly in studying the claviform hybrid composite rebar.

Dynamic responses and failure mechanisms of the existing tunnel under transient excavation unloading of an adjacent tunnel

Engineering disasters(e.g.rock slabbing and rockburst)of the tunnel groups induced by the transient excavation of an adjacent tunnel threaten the stability of the existing tunnel,especially for those excavated by using the drill and blast tunneling(D&B).However,the dynamic response and failure mechanism of surrounding rocks of the existing tunnel caused by adjacent transient excavation are not clear due to the difficulty in conducting field tests and laboratory experiments.Therefore,a novel transient unloading experimental system for deep tunnel excavation was proposed in this study.The real stress path and the unloading rate can be reproduced by using this proposed system.The experiments were conducted for observing the dynamic response of the existing tunnel induced by adjacent transient excavation under different lateral pressure coefficients l(?0.4,0.6,0.8,1,1.2,1.4,1.6,1.8)with a polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA)specimen.The propagation of the impact wave and unloading surface wave was detected through the digital image correlation(DIC)analysis.The reflection of the unloading surface wave on the incident side of the existing tunnel(tunnel-E)was observed and analyzed.Moreover,the dynamic characteristics of the stress redistribution,the particle displacement and vibration velocity of surrounding rocks of tunnel-E were analyzed and summarized.In addition,the Mohr-Coulomb(MeC)failure criterion with tension cut-off was adopted to evaluate the stability of the existing tunnel under adjacent transient excavation.The results indicate that the incident side of the existing tunnel under the dynamic disturbance of transient excavation of an adjacent tunnel was more prone to fail,followed by the shadow side and the top/bottom side.

STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF BREAKAGE OF SINGLE FIBER ON CREEP BEHAVIOR OF FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES

A 3-D micro cell model with multi-fibers has been presented to study the effects of breakage of single fiber on the whole creep behavior of fiber reinforced composites by finite element method (FEM). Before the fiber breakage, the stresses of all fibers are identical. With the creep time increasing, stress in fiber increases but stress in matrix decreases. It is assumed that the fiber breakage occurs when the stress in fiber reaches a critical value. The stress redistribution resulted from the breakage of fiber has been obtained. The influence on the axial stress of the broken fiber is local. The stress in the all fiber sections is not uniform. There is a local stress concentration in the matrix. And this stress concentration in the matrix is more and more serious with the creep deformation. The stress transference of the loading due to the fiber breakage has been studies numerically. It is found that the fibers near to the broken fiber will take over more loading.

Formation estimation and evolution mechanism of the pressure arch for non-circular tunnels under asymmetrical stress field

The tunneling-induced stress redistribution is dependent on the tunnel shape and the in-situ stress field, and the previous arch characterization method based on the circumferential or maximum principal stresses is only suitable for the circular tunnels under the hydrostatic stress field. In this study, a unified characterization method of the pressure arch for non-circular tunnels under the arbitrary stress field is proposed. By comparing the variations of compressive stress in different directions due to excavation, the ratio of the most significant increase in compressive stress is presented to characterize the arch effect, and the corresponding numerical algorithm is given. Since the proposed method takes the stress element as the basic analytical model, it can be easily applied to various complex excavation situations. Thereafter, combined with the established folding catastrophic model, an objective and unified quantitative method of the pressure arch boundaries is given. Using the proposed method, the longitudinal evolution of the pressure arch is analyzed. According to the expansion rate of the arch boundaries, three evolution stages including the initial formation, rapid expansion and stabilization are categorized. Parametric studies are conducted to illustrate the effect of ground properties and support stiffness on the pressure arch formation. It is found that the ground strength parameters and burial depth affect the arch range at a decreasing rate, while they have little effect on the arch shape. The lateral pressure coefficient has a significant effect on both the shape and range of the pressure arch. Increasing the support stiffness helps reduce the pressure arch range with a decreasing rate, while the synchronous variation of the elastic moduli of the surrounding rock and support does not affect the arch range under a certain relative elastic modulus. Finally, field monitoring is conducted to validate the proposed method in actual support design.