Effect of Hydration Aging and Water Binder Ratio on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Sprayed Concrete

In order to study the durability of sprayed concrete （shotcrete）, effects of different hydration aging and water-binder ratio （w/b） on the microstructure of cement paste and basic mechanical properties of test specimens were investigated. The phase composition, mass percentage of ettringite and portland in hydration production and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, thermo gravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry （TG-DSC） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, respectively. The experimental results showed that changes in phase composition was more significant than those of water-binder ratio. With hydration aging and water-binder ratio increased, the mass percentage of ettringite and portland was decreased from 4.42%, 1.49% to 3.31%, 1.35%, respectively and the microstructure of paste was significantly compacted. Likewise, the mechanical properties including cubic compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were rised obviously.

Three-dimensional finite difference analysis of shallow sprayed concrete tunnels crossing a reverse fault or a normal fault: A parametric study

Urban tunnels crossing faults are always at the risk of severe damages.In this paper,the efects of a reverse and a normal fault movement on a transversely crossing shallow shotcreted tunnel are investigated by 3D finite difference analysis.After verifying the accuracy of the numerical simulation predictions with the centrifuge physical model results,a parametric study is then conducted.That is,theleffects of various parameters such as the sprayed concrete thickness,the geo-mechanical properties of soil,the tunnel depth,and the fault plane dip angle are studied on the displacements of the ground surface and the tunnel structure,and on the plastic strains of the soil mass around tunnel.The results of each case of reverse and normal faulting are independently discussed and then compared with each other.It is obtained that deeper tunnels show greater displacements for both types of faulting.

Numerical analysis and capacity evaluation of composite sprayed concrete lined tunnels

Spray-applied membranes for waterproofing of sprayed concrete tunnels have led to the possibility of shear transfer between primary and secondary linings through the membrane interface,with the potential for reducing overall lining thickness.Laboratory tests have shown a reasonable degree of composite action in beam specimens.In this study,a numerical model previously calibrated against such tests is applied to a whole tunnel,considering soil–structure interaction and staged lining construction.The model shows composite action,and load sharing between the lining layers is expected in the tunnel as in the beams.Parametric studies over the practical range of interface stiffness values show that composite action is maintained,although at high interface stiffness,excessive bending may be imposed on the secondary lining,requiring additional reinforcement.An effcient composite shell design with minimal additional rein-forcement is achievable if the secondary lining thickness is reduced as compared to current practice.Robustness of the system,measured in terms of the interface’s ability to transfer stress under unequal loading causing distortion on the tunnel,is found to be generally ade-quate.However,adjacent construction in close proximity may provide insuffcient margin on membrane tensile de-bonding,particularly if the membrane is partially or fully saturated.

Interpretation of tangential and radial pressure cells in and on sprayed concrete tunnel linings

It is important to be able to measure stresses in tunnel linings to verify design assumptions and validate numerical models.For sprayed concrete-lined tunnels,continuous monitoring of stresses from the time of spraying onwards is desirable,and this can only be achieved using pressure cells installed on and in the sprayed concrete lining.Although there has been some success in using radial pressure cells between the ground and the lining,a method for obtaining reliable absolute values of stress from tangential pressure cells embedded in the sprayed concrete has not been available.This paper describes numerical and experimental studies of the behavior of pressure cells for monitoring stresses in a sprayed concrete lining and describes an original methodology to achieve reliable results.In particular,data from tangential pressure cells require careful interpretation,as they are sensitive to temperature,and this temperature sensitivity is found in parametric numerical analyses to vary as the stiffness of the concrete and its coefficient of thermal expansion evolve at early age.Tangential pressure cells are also sensitive to shrinkage strains in the concrete,and a methodology for removing this effect is described.Using the approach described in this paper,it is now possible to use pressure cells to measure absolute values of stresses in and on sprayed concrete tunnel linings from early age into the long-term.An example of radial and tangential pressure cells installed in the Heathrow Terminal 4 concourse tunnel is used to illustrate the methodology.

Compressive strength prediction of sprayed concrete lining in tunnel engineering using hybrid machine learning techniques

Sprayed concrete lining is a commonly employed support measure in tunnel engineering,which plays an important role in construction safety.Compressive strength is a key performance indicator of sprayed concrete lining,and the traditional measuring method is time-consuming and laborious.This paper proposes various hybrid machine learning algorithms to accomplish the advanced prediction of compressive strength of sprayed concrete lining based on the mixture design.Two hundred and five sets of experimental data were collected from a water conveyance tunnel in northwestern China for model construction,and each set of data was made up of six basic input variables(i.e.,water,cement,mineral powder,superplasticizer,coarse aggregate,and fine aggregate)and one output variable(i.e.,compressive strength).In order to eliminate the correlation between input variables,a new composite indicator(i.e.,the water-binder ratio)was introduced to achieve dimensionality reduction.After that,four hybrid models in total were built,namely BPNN-QPSO,SVR-QPSO,ELM-QPSO,and RF-QPSO,where the hyper-parameters of BPNN,SVR,ELM,and RF were auto-tuned by QPSO.Engineering application results indicated that RF-QPSO achieved the lowest mean absolute percentage error(MAPE)of 3.47% and root mean square error(RMSE)of 1.30 and the highest determination coefficient(R^(2))of 0.93 in the four hybrid models.Moreover,RFQPSO had the shortest running time of 0.15 s,followed by SVR-QPSO(0.18 s),ELM-QPSO(1.19 s),and BPNN-QPSO(1.58 s).Compared with BPNN-QPSO,SVR-QPSO,and ELM-QPSO,RF-QPSO performed the most superior performance in terms of both prediction accuracy and running speed.Finally,the importance of input variables on the model performance was quantitatively evaluated,further enhancing the interpretability of RF-QPSO.