Exploring the feasibility of prestressed anchor cables as an alternative to temporary support in the excavation of super-large-span tunnel

Excavating super-large-span tunnels in soft rock masses presents significant challenges.To ensure safety,the sequential excavation method is commonly adopted.It utilizes internal temporary supports to spatially partition the tunnel face and divide the excavation into multiple stages.However,these internal supports generally impose spatial constraints,limiting the use of large-scale excavation equipment and reducing construction efficiency.To address this constraint,this study adopts the“Shed-frame”principle to explore the feasibility of an innovative support system,which aims to replace internal supports with prestressed anchor cables and thus provide a more spacious working space with fewer internal obstructions.To evaluate its effectiveness,a field case involving the excavation of a 24-m span tunnel in soft rock is presented,and an analysis of extensive field data is conducted to study the deformation characteristics of the surrounding rock and the mechanical behavior of the support system.The results revealed that prestressed anchor cables integrated the initial support with the shed,creating an effective“shed-frame”system,which successively maintained tunnel deformation and frame stress levels within safe regulatory bounds.Moreover,the prestressed anchor cables bolstered the surrounding rock effectively and reduced the excavation-induced disturbance zone significantly.In summary,the proposed support system balances construction efficiency and safety.These field experiences may offer valuable insights into the popularization and further development of prestressed anchor cable support systems.

Ground motion duration effect on responses of hydraulic shallow-buried tunnel under SV-waves excitations

Although intensive research of the influence of ground motion duration on structural cumulative damage has been carried out, the influence of dynamic responses in underground tunnels remains a heated debate. This study attempts to highlight the importance of the ground motion duration effect on hydraulic tunnels subjected to deep-focus earthquakes. In the study, a set of 18 recorded accelerograms with a wide-range of durations were employed. A spectrally equivalent method serves to distinguish the effect of duration from other ground motion features, and then the seismic input model was simulated using SV-wave excitation based on a viscous-spring boundary, which was verified by the time-domain waves analysis method. The nonlinear analysis results demonstrate that the risk of collapse of the hydraulic tunnel is higher under long-duration ground motion than that of short-duration ground motion of the same seismic intensity. In a low intensity earthquake, the ground motion duration has little effect on the damage energy consumption of a hydraulic tunnel lining, but in a high intensity earthquake, dissipation of the damage energy and damage index of concrete shows a nonlinear growth trend accompanied by the increase of ground motion duration, which has a great influence on the deformation and stress of hydraulic tunnels, and correlation analysis shows that the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.8. Therefore, the duration of ground motion should be taken into consideration except for its intensity and frequency content in the design of hydraulic tunnel, and evaluation of seismic risk.

Dynamic Response of Shallow-Buried Tunnels Traversing High Loess Slopes

Considering the existence of numerous shallow-buried tunnels traversing high slopes in the loess area in western China and the fact of high seismic intensity there,we investigate the dynamic response rules of a shallow-buried loess tunnel and its slope under the action of seismic waves with different intensities.Through large-scale shaking table model tests,we successfully analyze the characteristics and process of the destabilization of tunnels and slopes,and propose valuable suggestions regarding the reinforcement parts of a tunnel for reducing seismic damage.The results show that the main seismic damage on a slope include the failure of the sliding surface between the top and foot and the stripping of the soil around the tunnel entrance,while the damage on a tunnel is mainly manifested as the seismic-induced subsidence at the portal section and the cracking deformation at the joint areas.Finally,we propose that the“staggered peak distribution”phenomenon of the maximum acceleration values at the vault and inverted arch area can be considered as a criterion indicating that the tunnel enters into the threshold of dynamic failure.

Model test of negative Poisson’s ratio cable for supporting super-largespan tunnel using excavation compensation method

In recent years,there is a scenario in urban tunnel constructions to build super-large-span tunnels for traffic diversion and route optimization purposes.However,the increased size makes tunnel support more difficult.Unfortunately,there are few studies on the failure and support mechanism of the surrounding rocks in the excavation of supported tunnel,while most model tests of super-large-span tunnels focus on the failure characteristics of surrounding rocks in tunnel excavation without supports.Based on excavation compensation method(ECM),model tests of a super-large-span tunnel excavation by different anchor cable support methods in the initial support stage were carried out.The results indicate that during excavation of super-large-span tunnel,the stress and displacement of the shallow surrounding rocks decrease,following a step-shape pattern,and the tunnel failure is mainly concentrated on the vault and spandrel areas.Compared with conventional anchor cable supports,the NPR(negative Poisson’s ratio)anchor cable support is more suitable for the initial support stage of the super-large-span tunnels.The tunnel support theory,model test materials,methods,and the results obtained in this study could provide references for study of similar super-large-span tunnels。

Negative Poisson’s ratio cable compensation support for 32 m super-large-span highway tunnel:A case study

Although super-large-span tunnels ensure convenient transportation,they face many support challenges.The lack of normative construction guidance and the limited number of reference engineering cases pose a significant challenge to the stability control of superlarge-span tunnels.Based on the geological conditions of a super-large-span tunnel(span=32.17 m)at the bifurcation section of the Shenzhen interchange,this study determined support parameters via theoretical calculation,numerical simulation,and engineering analogy.The support effects of negative Poisson’s ratio(NPR)anchor cables and ordinary anchor cables on super-long-span tunnels were simulated and studied.Further,based on FLAC3D simulations,the surrounding rock stress field of NPR anchor cables was analyzed under different prestressing conditions,and the mechanism of a long-short combination,high-prestress compensation NPR anchor cable support was revealed.On the basis of numerical simulations,to our knowledge,the three-dimensional(3D)geomechanical model test of the NPR anchor cable and ordinary anchor cable support for super-large-span tunnel excavation is conducted for the first time,revealing the stress evolution law of super-large-span tunnels,deformation and failure characteristics of the surrounding rock,and the changing trend of the anchor cable’s axial force,and verifies that NPR anchor cables with high preloads are suitable for super-large-span tunnel support and have advantages over ordinary anchor cables.This study can provide a reliable theoretical reference for the support design and stability control of the surrounding rock of similar shallow-buried super-large-span tunnels.

Blast responses of shallow-buried prefabricated modular concrete tunnels reinforced by BFRP-steel bars

This paper reports the anti-blast performance of shallow-buried prefabricated modular tunnel reinforced by basalt fiber-reinforced polymer(BFRP)-steel bars.Three concrete arch members with steel bars and three concrete arch members with BFRP-steel bars were fabricated,with the other arch parameters kept constant.The three identical arches were assembled into an integral structure and then buried in soil for field anti-blast experiments.Through the experiment,the pressure on the vault,the displacement and acceleration of the vault,the strain in the reinforcement bars and the macroscopic damage of the arches under the blast load were determined.To evaluate the damage of the arch tunnel,a residual load-bearing capacity test was conducted on the arch members after the explosion experiment.The experimental results showed that the BFRP-steel bars reinforced concrete arch exhibited a higher load-bearing capacity and more safety redundancy than the steel bars reinforced concrete arch,and that the BFRP-steel bars could inhibit the occurrence of concrete cracks to a certain extent.A comparison between the arches assembled at different positions showed that the prefabricated modular tun-nel can be simplified directly as a two-dimensional arch structure under the blast load for analysis and calculation.