Benchmark solutions of large-strain cavity contraction for deep tunnel convergence in geomaterials

To provide precise prediction of tunnelling-induced deformation of the surrounding geomaterials,a framework for derivation of rigorous large-strain solutions of unified spherical and cylindrical cavity contraction is presented for description of confinement-convergence responses for deep tunnels in geomaterials.Considering the tunnelling-induced large deformation,logarithmic strains are adopted for cavity contraction analyses in linearly elastic,non-associated Mohr-Coulomb,and brittle Hoek-Brown media.Compared with approximate solutions,the approximation error indicates the importance of release of small-strain restrictions for estimating tunnel convergence profiles,especially in terms of the scenarios with high stress condition and stiffness degradation under large deformation.The ground reaction curve is therefore predicted to describe the volume loss and stress relaxation around the tunnel walls.The stiffness of circular lining is calculated from the geometry and equivalent modulus of the supporting structure,and a lining installation factor is thus introduced to indicate the time of lining installation based on the prediction of spherical cavity contraction around the tunnel opening face.This study also provides a general approach for solutions using other sophisticated geomaterial models,and serves as benchmarks for analytical developments in consideration of nonlinear large-deformation behaviour and for numerical analyses of underground excavation.

Estimation of convergence of a high-speed railway tunnel in weak rocks using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system(ANFIS) approach

Estimation of tunnel diameter convergence is a very important issue for tunneling construction,especially when the new Austrian tunneling method（NATM） is adopted.For this purpose,a systematic convergence measurement is usually implemented to adjust the design during the whole construction,and consequently deadly hazards can be prevented.In this study,a new fuzzy model capable of predicting the diameter convergences of a high-speed railway tunnel was developed on the basis of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system（ANFIS） approach.The proposed model used more than 1 000 datasets collected from two different tunnels,i.e.Daguan tunnel No.2 and Yaojia tunnel No.1,which are part of a tunnel located in Hunan Province,China.Six Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference systems were constructed by using subtractive clustering method.The data obtained from Daguan tunnel No.2 were used for model training,while the data from Yaojia tunnel No.1 were employed to evaluate the performance of the model.The input parameters include surrounding rock masses（SRM） rating index,ground engineering conditions（GEC） rating index,tunnel overburden（H）,rock density（？）,distance between monitoring station and working face（D）,and elapsed time（T）.The model’s performance was assessed by the variance account for（VAF）,root mean square error（RMSE）,mean absolute percentage error（MAPE） as well as the coefficient of determination（R2） between measured and predicted data as recommended by many researchers.The results showed excellent prediction accuracy and it was suggested that the proposed model can be used to estimate the tunnel convergence and convergence velocity.

Horizontal convergence reconstruction in the longitudinal direction for shield tunnels based on conditional random field

Tunnel horizontal convergence monitoring is essential to ensure the operation safety.However,only a few representative tunnel sec-tions are chosen for monitoring due to the cost limitation.It is difficult to capture the horizontal convergence of each tunnel ring with limited measurements.Confronted with this difficulty,the paper proposes a horizontal convergence reconstruction method based on the measurements of deployed sensors.The tunnel horizontal convergence along the longitudinal direction is seen as a one-dimensional sta-tionary and ergodic random field.The reconstruction problem is then transformed into the generation of conditional random fields.Monte Carlo simulation is adopted to generate possible realizations and the mean of realizations is considered as the maximum likeli-hood reconstruction.Error analysis proves the effectiveness of the proposed reconstruction method.The proposed method is proved to be applicable in reconstructing the time-variant horizontal convergence and is verified by the monitoring results of the shield tunnel of Shanghai Metro Line 2.The effect of sensor numbers is parametrically studied,and an optimal sensor placement scheme is decided.Additional sensors placed at the deformation drastically changed location can significantly improve the performance of the proposed method.

Short-and long-term behaviors of drifts in the Callovo-Oxfordian claystone at the Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory

Since 2000, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency （ANDRA） has been constructing an Underground Research Laboratory （URL） at Bure （east of the Paris Basin） to perform experiments in order to obtain in situ data necessary to demonstrate the feasibility of geological repository in the Callovo- Oxfordian claystone. An important experimental program is planned to characterize the response of the rock to different drift construction methods, Before 2008, at the main level of the laboratory, most of the drifts were excavated using pneumatic hammer and supported with rock bolts, sliding steel arches and fiber shotcrete. Other techniques, such as road header techniques, stiff and flexible supports, have also been used to characterize their impacts. The drift network is developed following the in situ major stresses. The parallel drifts are separated enough so as they can be considered independently when their hydromechanical （HM） behaviors are compared. Mine-by experiments have been performed to measure the HM response of the rock and the mechanical loading applied to the support system due to the digging and after excavation. Drifts exhibit extensional （mode I） and shear fractures （modes II and III） induced by excavation works. The extent of the induced fracture networks depends on the drift orientation versus the in situ stress field. This paper describes the drift convergence and deformation in the surrounding rock walls as function of time and the impact of different support methods on the rock mass behavior. An observation based method is finally applied to distinguish the instantaneous and time-dependent parts of the rock mass deformation around the drifts.

Ground reaction curves for circular excavations in non-homogeneous,axisymmetric strain-softening rock masses

Fast methods to solve the unloading problem of a cylindrical cavity or tunnel excavated in elasto-perfectly plastic, elasto-brittle or strain-softening materials under a hydrostatic stress feld can be derived based on the self-similarity of the solution. As a consequence, they only apply when the rock mass is homogeneous and so exclude many cases of practical interest. We describe a robust and fast numerical technique that solves the tunnel unloading problem and estimates the ground reaction curve for a cylindrical cavity excavated in a rock mass with properties depending on the radial coordinate, where the solution is no longer self-similar. The solution is based on a continuation-like approach(associated with the unloading and with the incremental formulation of the elasto-plastic behavior), fnite element spatial discretization and a combination of explicit sub-stepping schemes and implicit techniques to integrate the constitutive law, so as to tackle the diffculties associated with both strong strain-softening and elasto-brittle behaviors. The developed algorithm is used for two practical ground reaction curve computation applications. The frst application refers to a tunnel surrounded by an aureole of material damaged by blasting and the second to a tunnel surrounded by a ring-like zone of reinforced(rock-bolted) material.