The traditional deterministic analysis for tunnel face stability neglects the uncertainties of geotechnical parameters,while the simplified reliability analysis which models the potential uncertainties by means of ran...The traditional deterministic analysis for tunnel face stability neglects the uncertainties of geotechnical parameters,while the simplified reliability analysis which models the potential uncertainties by means of random variables usually fails to account for soil spatial variability.To overcome these limitations,this study proposes an efficient framework for conducting reliability analysis and reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face stability in spatially variable soil strata.The three-dimensional(3D)rotational failure mechanism of the tunnel face is extended to account for the soil spatial variability,and a probabilistic framework is established by coupling the extended mechanism with the improved Hasofer-Lind-Rackwits-Fiessler recursive algorithm(iHLRF)as well as its inverse analysis formulation.The proposed framework allows for rapid and precise reliability analysis and RBD of tunnel face stability.To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed framework,an illustrative case of tunnelling in frictional soils is presented,where the soil's cohesion and friction angle are modelled as two anisotropic cross-correlated lognormal random fields.The results show that the proposed method can accurately estimate the failure probability(or reliability index)regarding the tunnel face stability and can efficiently determine the required supporting pressure for a target reliability index with soil spatial variability being taken into account.Furthermore,this study reveals the impact of various factors on the support pressure,including coefficient of variation,cross-correlation between cohesion and friction angle,as well as autocorrelation distance of spatially variable soil strata.The results also demonstrate the feasibility of using the forward and/or inverse first-order reliability method(FORM)in high-dimensional stochastic problems.It is hoped that this study may provide a practical and reliable framework for determining the stability of tunnels in complex soil strata.展开更多
To keep the tunnel face stable is very important for tunnel construction.In this paper,the tunnel face stability under the advanced pipe was analyzed using the Winkler foundation model and rigid limit equilibrium.The ...To keep the tunnel face stable is very important for tunnel construction.In this paper,the tunnel face stability under the advanced pipe was analyzed using the Winkler foundation model and rigid limit equilibrium.The tunnel face deformation characteristics were also analyzed using the numerical simulation.The influence of parameters on the deflection of the pipe roof and the stability of the tunnel face were discussed.The results show that the tunnel face stability can be improved through increasing the pipe diameter,decreasing the initial displacement at the beginning of the pipe seat,and adopting the short round length and small excavation height.With the increase of tunnel burial depth,the safety factor of tunnel face stability first decreases,then increases,and then remains unchanged.The deformation at the center of the tunnel face is larger than the deformation at the surround sides and at the corner.The horizontal displacement varies little with the increasing of the pipe length.The horizontal displacement at the center of the tunnel face increases with the increase of the pipe ring spacing and the pipe longitudinal spacing.There is an optimum external angle.展开更多
Existing mechanism of simulating soil movement at tunnel face is generally based on the translational or rotational velocity field,which is,to some extent,different from the real soil movement in the arching zone.Nume...Existing mechanism of simulating soil movement at tunnel face is generally based on the translational or rotational velocity field,which is,to some extent,different from the real soil movement in the arching zone.Numerical simulations are carried out first to investigate the characteristics of the velocity distribution at tunnel face and above tunnel vault.Then a new kinematically admissible velocity field is proposed to improve the description of the soil movement according to the results of the numerical simulation.Based on the proposed velocity field,an improved failure mechanism is constructed adopting the spatial discretization technique,which takes into account soil arching effect and plastic deformation within soil mass.Finally,the critical face pressure and the proposed mechanism are compared with the results of the numerical simulation,existing analytical studies and experimental tests to verify the accuracy and improvement of the presented method.The proposed mechanism can serve as an alternative approach for the face stability analysis.展开更多
In order to maintain the safety of underground constructions that significantly involve geo-material uncertainties,this paper delivers a new computation framework for conducting reliability-based design(RBD)of shallow...In order to maintain the safety of underground constructions that significantly involve geo-material uncertainties,this paper delivers a new computation framework for conducting reliability-based design(RBD)of shallow tunnel face stability,utilizing a simplified inverse first-order reliability method(FORM).The limit state functions defining tunnel face stability are established for both collapse and blow-out modes of the tunnel face failure,respectively,and the deterministic results of the tunnel face support pressure are obtained through three-dimensional finite element limit analysis(FELA).Because the inverse reliability method can directly capture the design support pressure according to prescribed target reliability index,the computational cost for probabilistic design of tunnel face stability is greatly reduced.By comparison with Monte Carlo simulation results,the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method are verified.Further,this study presents a series of reliability-based design charts for vividly understanding the limit support pressure on tunnel face in both cohesionless(sandy)soil and cohesive soil stratums,and their optimal support pressure ranges are highlighted.The results show that in the case of sandy soil stratum,the blowout failure of tunnel face is extremely unlikely,whereas the collapse is the only possible failure mode.The parametric study of various geotechnical uncertainties also reveals that ignoring the potential correlation between soil shear strength parameters will lead to over-designed support pressure,and the coefficient of variation of internal friction angle has a greater influence on the tunnel face failure probability than that of the cohesion.展开更多
An analysis of tunnel face stability generally assumes a single homogeneous rock mass.However,most rock tunnel projects are excavated in stratified rock masses.This paper presents a two-dimensional(2D)analytical model...An analysis of tunnel face stability generally assumes a single homogeneous rock mass.However,most rock tunnel projects are excavated in stratified rock masses.This paper presents a two-dimensional(2D)analytical model for estimating the face stability of a rock tunnel in the presence of rock mass stratification.The model uses the kinematical limit analysis approach combined with the block calculation technique.A virtual support force is applied to the tunnel face,and then solved using an optimization method based on the upper limit theorem of limit analysis and the nonlinear Hoek-Brown yield criterion.Several design charts are provided to analyze the effects of rock layer thickness on tunnel face stability,tunnel diameter,the arrangement sequence of weak and strong rock layers,and the variation in rock layer parameters at different positions.The results indicate that the thickness of the rock layer,tunnel diameter,and arrangement sequence of weak and strong rock layers significantly affect the tunnel face stability.Variations in the parameters of the lower layer of the tunnel face have a greater effect on tunnel stability than those of the upper layer.展开更多
The face stability problem is a major concern for tunnels excavated in rock masses governed by the Hoek-Brown strength criterion.To provide an accurate prediction for the theoretical solution of the critical face pres...The face stability problem is a major concern for tunnels excavated in rock masses governed by the Hoek-Brown strength criterion.To provide an accurate prediction for the theoretical solution of the critical face pressure,this study adopts the piecewise linear method(PLM)to account for the nonlinearity of the strength envelope and proposes a new multi-horn rotational mechanism based on the Hoek-Brown strength criterion and the associative flow rule.The analytical solution of critical support pressure is derived from the energy-work balance equation in the framework of the plastic limit theorem;it is formulated as a multivariable nonlinear optimization problem relying on 2m dependent variables(m is the number of segments).Meanwhile,two classic linearized measures,the generalized tangential technique(GTT)and equivalent Mohr-Coulomb parameters method(EMM),are incorporated into the analysis for comparison.Surprisingly,the parametric study indicates a significant improvement in support pressure by up to 13%compared with the GTT,and as expected,the stability of the tunnel face is greatly influenced by the rock strength parameters.The stress distribution on the rupture surface is calculated to gain an intuitive understanding of the failure at the limit state.Although the limit analysis is incapable of calculating the true stress distribution in rock masses,a rough approximation of the stress vector on the rupture surface is permitted.In the end,sets of normalized face pressure are provided in the form of charts for a quick assessment of face stability in rock masses.展开更多
Face stability is an essential issue in tunnel design and construction.Layered rock masses are typical and ubiquitous;uncertainties in rock properties always exist.In view of this,a comprehensive method,which combines...Face stability is an essential issue in tunnel design and construction.Layered rock masses are typical and ubiquitous;uncertainties in rock properties always exist.In view of this,a comprehensive method,which combines the Upper bound Limit analysis of Tunnel face stability,the Polynomial Chaos Kriging,the Monte-Carlo Simulation and Analysis of Covariance method(ULT-PCK-MA),is proposed to investigate the seismic stability of tunnel faces.A two-dimensional analytical model of ULT is developed to evaluate the virtual support force based on the upper bound limit analysis.An efficient probabilistic analysis method PCK-MA based on the adaptive Polynomial Chaos Kriging metamodel is then implemented to investigate the parameter uncertainty effects.Ten input parameters,including geological strength indices,uniaxial compressive strengths and constants for three rock formations,and the horizontal seismic coefficients,are treated as random variables.The effects of these parameter uncertainties on the failure probability and sensitivity indices are discussed.In addition,the effects of weak layer position,the middle layer thickness and quality,the tunnel diameter,the parameters correlation,and the seismic loadings are investigated,respectively.The results show that the layer distributions significantly influence the tunnel face probabilistic stability,particularly when the weak rock is present in the bottom layer.The efficiency of the proposed ULT-PCK-MA is validated,which is expected to facilitate the engineering design and construction.展开更多
Tunnelling has increasingly become an essential tool in the exploration of underground space.A typical construction problem is the face instability during tunnelling,posing a great threat to associated infrastructures...Tunnelling has increasingly become an essential tool in the exploration of underground space.A typical construction problem is the face instability during tunnelling,posing a great threat to associated infrastructures.Tunnel face instability often occurs with the soil arching collapse.This study investigates the combined effect of cutterhead opening ratio and soil non-uniformity on soil arching effect and face stability,via conducting random finite-element analysis coupled with Monte–Carlo simulations.The results underscore that the face stability is strongly associated with the evolution of stress arch.The obtained stability factors in the uniform soils can serve as a reference for the design of support pressure in practical tunnelling engineering.In addition,non-uniform soils exhibit a lower stability factor than uniform soils,which implies that the latter likely yields an underestimated probability of face failure.The tunnel face is found to have a probability of failure more than 50%if the spatial non-uniformity of soil is ignored.In the end,a practical framework is established to determine factor of safety(FOS)corresponding to different levels of probability of face failure considering various opening ratios in non-uniform soils.The required FOS is 1.70 to limit the probability of face instability no more than 0.1%.Our findings can facilitate the prediction of probability of instability in the conventionally deterministic design of face pressure.展开更多
Tunnel face stability has received increasing research interest over the past few decades. However, computing time-efficient and safethree-dimensional solutions under seismic loading is still an unsolved problem, whil...Tunnel face stability has received increasing research interest over the past few decades. However, computing time-efficient and safethree-dimensional solutions under seismic loading is still an unsolved problem, while case studies indicate that seismic loading can be onecritical destabilizing factor affecting tunnel stability. The primary objective of this work is to fill this gap in knowledge by providing compromisingand computationally efficient solutions, along with their respective lower and upper bounds, to compute face stability underseismic conditions. The analyses employ the finite element limit analysis method to evaluate the limit support pressure in undrained clay,considering horizontal pseudo-static seismic forces pointing outwards from the face. Moreover, the analyses employ both constant andlinearly increasing shear strengths with depth. The results are summarized as dimensionless stability charts and tables to facilitate theirinterpretation and future use for tunnel design. A new design equation has been developed to evaluate the stability of the tunnel faceconsidering the effect of seismic forces. Additionally, the effects of different parameters on the shape of the failure mechanism have beeninvestigated by analysing the distribution of shear dissipation.展开更多
The horizontally layered or even inclined strata are often encountered in practical shield tunneling.The influence of inclined strata on face stability of shield tunnels is not fully investigated by the existing studi...The horizontally layered or even inclined strata are often encountered in practical shield tunneling.The influence of inclined strata on face stability of shield tunnels is not fully investigated by the existing studies.This paper adopts both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation to carry out research on face stability in inclined strata.The spatial discretization technique is adopted to construct a threedimensional(3D)kinematic failure mechanism considering intersection between inclined soil interface and tunnel face.An analytical solution for critical support pressure is obtained.Besides,the critical support pressure and 3D kinematic mechanism are compared with numerical results to verify accuracy and effectiveness of analytical model.The influences of dip and position of inclined strata on face stability are thoroughly studied.The proposed failure mechanism can serve as a reference for face stability analysis in inclined strata.展开更多
Owing to long-distance advancement or obstacles,shield tunneling machines are typically shut down for maintenance.Engineering safety during maintenance outages is determined by the stability of the tunnel face.Pressur...Owing to long-distance advancement or obstacles,shield tunneling machines are typically shut down for maintenance.Engineering safety during maintenance outages is determined by the stability of the tunnel face.Pressure maintenance openings are typically used under complicated hydrogeological conditions.The tunnel face is supported by a medium at the bottom of the excavation chamber and compressed air at the top.Owing to the high risk of face failure,the necessity of support pressure when cutterhead support is implemented and a method for determining the value of compressed air pressure using different support ratios must to be determined.In this study,a non-fully chamber supported rotational failure model considering cutterhead support is developed based on the upper-bound theorem of limit analysis.Numerical simulation is conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed model.The results indicate that appropriately increasing the specific gravity of the supporting medium can reduce the risk of collapse.The required compressed air pressure increases significantly as the support ratio decreases.Disregarding the supporting effect of the cutterhead will result in a tunnel face with underestimated stability.To satisfy the requirement of chamber openings at atmospheric pressure,the stratum reinforcement strength and range at the shield end are provided based on different cutterhead aperture ratios.展开更多
The stability of the shapes of crystal growth face and dissolution face in a two-dimensional mathematical model of crystal growth from solution under microgravity is studied. It is proved that the stable shapes of cry...The stability of the shapes of crystal growth face and dissolution face in a two-dimensional mathematical model of crystal growth from solution under microgravity is studied. It is proved that the stable shapes of crystal growth face and dissolution face do exist, which are suitably shaped curves with their upper parts inclined backward properly.The stable shapes of crystal growth faces and dissolution faces are calculated for various values of parameters, Ra, Pr and Sc. It is shown that the stronger the convection relative to the diffusion in solution is, the more backward the upperparts of the stable crystal growth face and dissolution face are inclined. The orientation and the shape of dissolution face hardly affect the stable shape of crystal growth face and vice versa.展开更多
A novel horizontal trap-door test system was devised in this study to analyze the face stability of shield tunnels in sands.The test system can be used to investigate both the longitudinal and cross sections of the fa...A novel horizontal trap-door test system was devised in this study to analyze the face stability of shield tunnels in sands.The test system can be used to investigate both the longitudinal and cross sections of the face failure simultaneously at one single apparatus and was employed to perform face stability tests on small-scaled tunnel models at single gravity.The lateral support pressures and failure zones were studied with varying sand materials and earth covers.The results demonstrate that the tunnel face moves back,the lateral active earth pressure on the tunnel face decreases rapidly to a residual value,and the lateral pressure distribution can be categorized into three stages during the failure process:1)initial state;2)pressure dissipation stage;and 3)pressure zone diminution stage.Furthermore,face failure firstly develops from a stable condition to the local failure state,and then continues to develop to the global failure state that can be divided into two sub-zones with different failure mechanisms:rotational failure zone(lower zone)and gravitational failure zone(upper zone).Further discussion shows that under the effects of soil arching,the shape of the gravitational failure zone can adopt arch shaped(most frequent)and column shaped(in shallow tunnels).Limit support pressure for face stability usually appears atδ/D=0.2%−0.5%(ratio of face displacement to tunnel diameter).展开更多
In order to investigate the influence of face instability for tunnels with different burial depths in sandy cobble strata on earth pressure and the instability region,geomechanical model tests and numerical simulation...In order to investigate the influence of face instability for tunnels with different burial depths in sandy cobble strata on earth pressure and the instability region,geomechanical model tests and numerical simulations were performed.The continuous excavation method was adopted to reduce the pressure of the soil bin and restore the real engineering situation.Earth pressure in three directions of the obser-vation section in front of the tunnel face was monitored during the tunneling of the shield.Evolutions of the lateral stress ratios at dif-ferent stages were also investigated.The instability area of the shield tunnel face in sandy cobble strata with different burial depth ratios during the instability stage was obtained based on the change ratio of earth pressure and compared with existing researches.The earth pressure began to change when the excavation was one shield diameter away from the observation section,and when the excavation reached the observation section,the earth pressure decreased significantly.The burial depth of shield tunnel in the sandy cobble strata has a significant impact on the evolution of soil arch and the size of the failure area.The numerical simulation of the continuum medium cannot reflect the stress redistribution characteristics of the granular body like sandy cobble strata,and the failure area or stress distur-bance area obtained by the model test is larger than the numerical simulation result.Existing methods have deviations in analyzing the failure area of shield tunnel face in sandy cobble strata.It provides not only guidance for shield tunnel excavation engineering in sandy cobble strata,but also a reference for the theoretical research on failure areas.展开更多
The transition from grinding to chipping can be observed in tunnel boring machine(TBM) penetration test data by plotting the penetration rate(distance/revolution) against the net cutter thrust(force per cutter) over t...The transition from grinding to chipping can be observed in tunnel boring machine(TBM) penetration test data by plotting the penetration rate(distance/revolution) against the net cutter thrust(force per cutter) over the full range of penetration rates in the test.Correlating penetration test data to the geological and geomechanical characteristics of rock masses through which a penetration test is conducted provides the ability to reveal the efficiency of the chipping process in response to changing geological conditions.Penetration test data can also be used to identify stress-induced tunnel face instability.This research shows that the strength of the rock is an important parameter for controlling how much net cutter thrust is required to transition from grinding to chipping.It also shows that the geological characteristics of a rock will determine how efficient chipping occurs once it has begun.In particular,geological characteristics that lead to efficient fracture propagation,such as fabric and mica contents,will lead to efficient chipping.These findings will enable a better correlation between TBM performance and geological conditions for use in TBM design,as a basis for contractual payments where penetration rate dominates the excavation cycle and in further academic investigations into the TBM excavation process.展开更多
Using fiberglass bolts to reinforce a tunnel face is a practical auxiliary technology for ensuring tunnel face stability in soft ground.The reinforcing effect and the economics of this technology are significantly aff...Using fiberglass bolts to reinforce a tunnel face is a practical auxiliary technology for ensuring tunnel face stability in soft ground.The reinforcing effect and the economics of this technology are significantly affected by bolt length.However,to date,the failure mechanism of bolt-reinforced tunnel faces with different bolt lengths has rarely been investigated.To reveal the failure mechanism of bolt-reinforced shallow tunnel faces,in this study,the stability of bolt-reinforced tunnel faces with different bolt lengths was investigated by using laboratory tests and numerical simulations,and a simplified theoretical model for practical engineering was proposed.The face support pressure and failure pattern for different bolt lengths during the face collapse process were obtained,and the influence of bolt length on face stability was clearly revealed.More specifically,the results show that face stability increases with increasing bolt length,and the reinforcing effect of face bolts is governed by the shear failure at the soil-grout interface first in the stable zone of the tunnel face and then in the failure zone.Once the bolt length in the stable zone is larger than that in the failure zone,face stability will not be improved with increasing bolt length;thus,this bolt length is referred to as the optimal bolt length L_(opt).The L_(opt)value is slightly larger than the initial failure range(in the unreinforced condition)and can be approximately calculated by L_(opt)=(1-0.0133u)D(u is the friction angle of the soil,and D is the tunnel diameter)in practical engineering.Finally,a simplified theoretical model was established to analyse the stability of reinforced tunnel faces,and the results are in good agreement with both laboratory tests and numerical simulations.The proposed model can be used as an efficient tool for the design of face bolts.展开更多
Face passive failure can severely damage existing structures and underground utilities during shallow shield tunneling,especially in coastal backfill sand.In this work,a series of laboratory model tests were developed...Face passive failure can severely damage existing structures and underground utilities during shallow shield tunneling,especially in coastal backfill sand.In this work,a series of laboratory model tests were developed and conducted to investigate such failure,for tunnels located at burial depth ratios for which C/D=0.5,0.8,1,and 1.3.Support pressures,the evolution of failure processes,the failure modes,and the distribution of velocity fields were examined through model tests and numerical analyses.The support pressure in the tests first rose rapidly to the elastic limit and then gradually increased to the maximum value in all cases.The maximum support pressure decreased slightly in cases where C/D=0.8,1,and 1.3,but the rebound was insignificant where C/D=0.5.In addition,the configuration of the failure mode with C/D=0.5 showed a wedge-shaped arch,which was determined by the outcropping shear failure.The configuration of failure modes was composed of an arch and the inverted trapezoid when C/D=0.8,1,and 1.3,in which the mode was divided into lower and upper failure zones.展开更多
This paper develops a new approach for reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face support pressure from a quantile value perspective.A surrogate model is constructed to calculate the collapse pressures of the random ...This paper develops a new approach for reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face support pressure from a quantile value perspective.A surrogate model is constructed to calculate the collapse pressures of the random samples generated by a single run of Monte Carlo simulation(MCS).The cumulative distribution function(CDF)of the collapse pressure is then obtained and the support pressure aiming at a target failure probability is chosen as the upper quantile value of the collapse pressures.The proposed approach does not require repetitive reliability analyses compared to the existing methods.Moreover,a direct relationship between the target failure probability and the required support pressure is established.An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the implementation procedure.The accuracy of the reliability-based support pressures is verified by direct MCS incorporating with three-dimensional numerical simulations.Finally,the influencing factors,including the sample size of MCS,the correlation coefficient between random variables,the choice of experimental points,and the surrogate model,are investigated.This method can play a complementary role to available approaches due to its advantages of simplicity and efficiency.展开更多
When tunnelling in difficult ground conditions,shield machine would inevitably produce significant ground loss and vibration,which may disturb the ground ahead of the tunnel face.In this paper,discrete element models ...When tunnelling in difficult ground conditions,shield machine would inevitably produce significant ground loss and vibration,which may disturb the ground ahead of the tunnel face.In this paper,discrete element models calibrated by model tests were established to investigate the response of tunnel face under the coupling effects of unloading and cutterhead vibrations.The results show that the friction angle reduction under cyclic loading and vibration attenuation in the sandy ground are significant and can be estimated by the fitted exponential functions.Under cutterhead vibration,the tunnel face stability is undermined and the limit support pressure(LSP)increases to 1.4 times as that in the static case with the growth of frequency and amplitude.Meanwhile,the loosening zone becomes wider and the arching effect is weakened with the reduction of peak horizontal stress and the increase of vertical stress above the tunnel.Based on the numerical results,a pseudo-static method was introduced into the limit equilibrium analysis of the wedge-prism model for calculating the LSP under vibration.With an error rate less than 5.2%,the proposed analytical method is well validated.Further analytical calculation reveals that the LSP would increase with the growth of vibration amplitude,vibration frequency and covered depth but decrease with the increase of friction angle.This study can not only lay a solid foundation for the further investigation of ground loss,ground water and soft-hard heterogeneous ground under cutterhead vibration,but also provide meaningful references for the control of environmental disturbance in practice.展开更多
This paper focuses on theoretical analytical models to calculate the limit support pressure and vertical earth pressure on the cutting face for tunnels.The failure zone is divided into two parts:a sliding failure zone...This paper focuses on theoretical analytical models to calculate the limit support pressure and vertical earth pressure on the cutting face for tunnels.The failure zone is divided into two parts:a sliding failure zone and an upper loosen zone,and the limit support pressure calculation equation is derived.To verify the rationality of the theoretical model,it was compared with the existing theory,numerical simulation,and centrifugal test,and then the parameter analysis was carried out.The results show that the results of this paper agree well with the existing theory,numerical simulation,and centrifugal test.The inclination angle of the proposed mechanism is determined based on the results of the existing centrifuge test,and the recommended inclination angle is between 52°+φ/2 and 54°+φ/2.The method is proven to be safe and accurate.It can provide a theoretical basis for similar projects.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U22A20594)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Grant No.B230205028)the Postgraduate Research&Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province(Grant No.KYCX23_0694).
文摘The traditional deterministic analysis for tunnel face stability neglects the uncertainties of geotechnical parameters,while the simplified reliability analysis which models the potential uncertainties by means of random variables usually fails to account for soil spatial variability.To overcome these limitations,this study proposes an efficient framework for conducting reliability analysis and reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face stability in spatially variable soil strata.The three-dimensional(3D)rotational failure mechanism of the tunnel face is extended to account for the soil spatial variability,and a probabilistic framework is established by coupling the extended mechanism with the improved Hasofer-Lind-Rackwits-Fiessler recursive algorithm(iHLRF)as well as its inverse analysis formulation.The proposed framework allows for rapid and precise reliability analysis and RBD of tunnel face stability.To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed framework,an illustrative case of tunnelling in frictional soils is presented,where the soil's cohesion and friction angle are modelled as two anisotropic cross-correlated lognormal random fields.The results show that the proposed method can accurately estimate the failure probability(or reliability index)regarding the tunnel face stability and can efficiently determine the required supporting pressure for a target reliability index with soil spatial variability being taken into account.Furthermore,this study reveals the impact of various factors on the support pressure,including coefficient of variation,cross-correlation between cohesion and friction angle,as well as autocorrelation distance of spatially variable soil strata.The results also demonstrate the feasibility of using the forward and/or inverse first-order reliability method(FORM)in high-dimensional stochastic problems.It is hoped that this study may provide a practical and reliable framework for determining the stability of tunnels in complex soil strata.
基金Project(20A187)supported by the Hunan Provincial Department of Education,ChinaProjects(51408216,51308209)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China。
文摘To keep the tunnel face stable is very important for tunnel construction.In this paper,the tunnel face stability under the advanced pipe was analyzed using the Winkler foundation model and rigid limit equilibrium.The tunnel face deformation characteristics were also analyzed using the numerical simulation.The influence of parameters on the deflection of the pipe roof and the stability of the tunnel face were discussed.The results show that the tunnel face stability can be improved through increasing the pipe diameter,decreasing the initial displacement at the beginning of the pipe seat,and adopting the short round length and small excavation height.With the increase of tunnel burial depth,the safety factor of tunnel face stability first decreases,then increases,and then remains unchanged.The deformation at the center of the tunnel face is larger than the deformation at the surround sides and at the corner.The horizontal displacement varies little with the increasing of the pipe length.The horizontal displacement at the center of the tunnel face increases with the increase of the pipe ring spacing and the pipe longitudinal spacing.There is an optimum external angle.
基金financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51978042)。
文摘Existing mechanism of simulating soil movement at tunnel face is generally based on the translational or rotational velocity field,which is,to some extent,different from the real soil movement in the arching zone.Numerical simulations are carried out first to investigate the characteristics of the velocity distribution at tunnel face and above tunnel vault.Then a new kinematically admissible velocity field is proposed to improve the description of the soil movement according to the results of the numerical simulation.Based on the proposed velocity field,an improved failure mechanism is constructed adopting the spatial discretization technique,which takes into account soil arching effect and plastic deformation within soil mass.Finally,the critical face pressure and the proposed mechanism are compared with the results of the numerical simulation,existing analytical studies and experimental tests to verify the accuracy and improvement of the presented method.The proposed mechanism can serve as an alternative approach for the face stability analysis.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China[NSFC Grant Nos.51879091,52079045,41772287]support from the Key R&D Project of Zhejiang Province(2021C03159).
文摘In order to maintain the safety of underground constructions that significantly involve geo-material uncertainties,this paper delivers a new computation framework for conducting reliability-based design(RBD)of shallow tunnel face stability,utilizing a simplified inverse first-order reliability method(FORM).The limit state functions defining tunnel face stability are established for both collapse and blow-out modes of the tunnel face failure,respectively,and the deterministic results of the tunnel face support pressure are obtained through three-dimensional finite element limit analysis(FELA).Because the inverse reliability method can directly capture the design support pressure according to prescribed target reliability index,the computational cost for probabilistic design of tunnel face stability is greatly reduced.By comparison with Monte Carlo simulation results,the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method are verified.Further,this study presents a series of reliability-based design charts for vividly understanding the limit support pressure on tunnel face in both cohesionless(sandy)soil and cohesive soil stratums,and their optimal support pressure ranges are highlighted.The results show that in the case of sandy soil stratum,the blowout failure of tunnel face is extremely unlikely,whereas the collapse is the only possible failure mode.The parametric study of various geotechnical uncertainties also reveals that ignoring the potential correlation between soil shear strength parameters will lead to over-designed support pressure,and the coefficient of variation of internal friction angle has a greater influence on the tunnel face failure probability than that of the cohesion.
基金supported by the Key Innovation Team Program of Innovation Talents Promotion Plan by MOST of China(Grant No.2016RA4059)the Science and Technology Project of Yunnan Provincial Transportation Department(No.25 of 2018)。
文摘An analysis of tunnel face stability generally assumes a single homogeneous rock mass.However,most rock tunnel projects are excavated in stratified rock masses.This paper presents a two-dimensional(2D)analytical model for estimating the face stability of a rock tunnel in the presence of rock mass stratification.The model uses the kinematical limit analysis approach combined with the block calculation technique.A virtual support force is applied to the tunnel face,and then solved using an optimization method based on the upper limit theorem of limit analysis and the nonlinear Hoek-Brown yield criterion.Several design charts are provided to analyze the effects of rock layer thickness on tunnel face stability,tunnel diameter,the arrangement sequence of weak and strong rock layers,and the variation in rock layer parameters at different positions.The results indicate that the thickness of the rock layer,tunnel diameter,and arrangement sequence of weak and strong rock layers significantly affect the tunnel face stability.Variations in the parameters of the lower layer of the tunnel face have a greater effect on tunnel stability than those of the upper layer.
基金supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the central universities of Central South University(No.2022ZZTS0153).
文摘The face stability problem is a major concern for tunnels excavated in rock masses governed by the Hoek-Brown strength criterion.To provide an accurate prediction for the theoretical solution of the critical face pressure,this study adopts the piecewise linear method(PLM)to account for the nonlinearity of the strength envelope and proposes a new multi-horn rotational mechanism based on the Hoek-Brown strength criterion and the associative flow rule.The analytical solution of critical support pressure is derived from the energy-work balance equation in the framework of the plastic limit theorem;it is formulated as a multivariable nonlinear optimization problem relying on 2m dependent variables(m is the number of segments).Meanwhile,two classic linearized measures,the generalized tangential technique(GTT)and equivalent Mohr-Coulomb parameters method(EMM),are incorporated into the analysis for comparison.Surprisingly,the parametric study indicates a significant improvement in support pressure by up to 13%compared with the GTT,and as expected,the stability of the tunnel face is greatly influenced by the rock strength parameters.The stress distribution on the rupture surface is calculated to gain an intuitive understanding of the failure at the limit state.Although the limit analysis is incapable of calculating the true stress distribution in rock masses,a rough approximation of the stress vector on the rupture surface is permitted.In the end,sets of normalized face pressure are provided in the form of charts for a quick assessment of face stability in rock masses.
基金supported by Science and Technology Project of Yunnan Provincial Transportation Department(Grant No.25 of 2018)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52279107)The authors are grateful for the support by the China Scholarship Council(CSC No.202206260203 and No.201906690049).
文摘Face stability is an essential issue in tunnel design and construction.Layered rock masses are typical and ubiquitous;uncertainties in rock properties always exist.In view of this,a comprehensive method,which combines the Upper bound Limit analysis of Tunnel face stability,the Polynomial Chaos Kriging,the Monte-Carlo Simulation and Analysis of Covariance method(ULT-PCK-MA),is proposed to investigate the seismic stability of tunnel faces.A two-dimensional analytical model of ULT is developed to evaluate the virtual support force based on the upper bound limit analysis.An efficient probabilistic analysis method PCK-MA based on the adaptive Polynomial Chaos Kriging metamodel is then implemented to investigate the parameter uncertainty effects.Ten input parameters,including geological strength indices,uniaxial compressive strengths and constants for three rock formations,and the horizontal seismic coefficients,are treated as random variables.The effects of these parameter uncertainties on the failure probability and sensitivity indices are discussed.In addition,the effects of weak layer position,the middle layer thickness and quality,the tunnel diameter,the parameters correlation,and the seismic loadings are investigated,respectively.The results show that the layer distributions significantly influence the tunnel face probabilistic stability,particularly when the weak rock is present in the bottom layer.The efficiency of the proposed ULT-PCK-MA is validated,which is expected to facilitate the engineering design and construction.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation Innovation Group Project of Hubei Province,China(Grant No.2023AFA017)the NRF-NSFC 3rd Joint Research Grant(Earth Science)(Grant No.41861144022).
文摘Tunnelling has increasingly become an essential tool in the exploration of underground space.A typical construction problem is the face instability during tunnelling,posing a great threat to associated infrastructures.Tunnel face instability often occurs with the soil arching collapse.This study investigates the combined effect of cutterhead opening ratio and soil non-uniformity on soil arching effect and face stability,via conducting random finite-element analysis coupled with Monte–Carlo simulations.The results underscore that the face stability is strongly associated with the evolution of stress arch.The obtained stability factors in the uniform soils can serve as a reference for the design of support pressure in practical tunnelling engineering.In addition,non-uniform soils exhibit a lower stability factor than uniform soils,which implies that the latter likely yields an underestimated probability of face failure.The tunnel face is found to have a probability of failure more than 50%if the spatial non-uniformity of soil is ignored.In the end,a practical framework is established to determine factor of safety(FOS)corresponding to different levels of probability of face failure considering various opening ratios in non-uniform soils.The required FOS is 1.70 to limit the probability of face instability no more than 0.1%.Our findings can facilitate the prediction of probability of instability in the conventionally deterministic design of face pressure.
基金This research was funded,in part,by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grant PID2019-108060RB-I00.
文摘Tunnel face stability has received increasing research interest over the past few decades. However, computing time-efficient and safethree-dimensional solutions under seismic loading is still an unsolved problem, while case studies indicate that seismic loading can be onecritical destabilizing factor affecting tunnel stability. The primary objective of this work is to fill this gap in knowledge by providing compromisingand computationally efficient solutions, along with their respective lower and upper bounds, to compute face stability underseismic conditions. The analyses employ the finite element limit analysis method to evaluate the limit support pressure in undrained clay,considering horizontal pseudo-static seismic forces pointing outwards from the face. Moreover, the analyses employ both constant andlinearly increasing shear strengths with depth. The results are summarized as dimensionless stability charts and tables to facilitate theirinterpretation and future use for tunnel design. A new design equation has been developed to evaluate the stability of the tunnel faceconsidering the effect of seismic forces. Additionally, the effects of different parameters on the shape of the failure mechanism have beeninvestigated by analysing the distribution of shear dissipation.
文摘The horizontally layered or even inclined strata are often encountered in practical shield tunneling.The influence of inclined strata on face stability of shield tunnels is not fully investigated by the existing studies.This paper adopts both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation to carry out research on face stability in inclined strata.The spatial discretization technique is adopted to construct a threedimensional(3D)kinematic failure mechanism considering intersection between inclined soil interface and tunnel face.An analytical solution for critical support pressure is obtained.Besides,the critical support pressure and 3D kinematic mechanism are compared with numerical results to verify accuracy and effectiveness of analytical model.The influences of dip and position of inclined strata on face stability are thoroughly studied.The proposed failure mechanism can serve as a reference for face stability analysis in inclined strata.
基金The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U1830208)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52008021).
文摘Owing to long-distance advancement or obstacles,shield tunneling machines are typically shut down for maintenance.Engineering safety during maintenance outages is determined by the stability of the tunnel face.Pressure maintenance openings are typically used under complicated hydrogeological conditions.The tunnel face is supported by a medium at the bottom of the excavation chamber and compressed air at the top.Owing to the high risk of face failure,the necessity of support pressure when cutterhead support is implemented and a method for determining the value of compressed air pressure using different support ratios must to be determined.In this study,a non-fully chamber supported rotational failure model considering cutterhead support is developed based on the upper-bound theorem of limit analysis.Numerical simulation is conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed model.The results indicate that appropriately increasing the specific gravity of the supporting medium can reduce the risk of collapse.The required compressed air pressure increases significantly as the support ratio decreases.Disregarding the supporting effect of the cutterhead will result in a tunnel face with underestimated stability.To satisfy the requirement of chamber openings at atmospheric pressure,the stratum reinforcement strength and range at the shield end are provided based on different cutterhead aperture ratios.
文摘The stability of the shapes of crystal growth face and dissolution face in a two-dimensional mathematical model of crystal growth from solution under microgravity is studied. It is proved that the stable shapes of crystal growth face and dissolution face do exist, which are suitably shaped curves with their upper parts inclined backward properly.The stable shapes of crystal growth faces and dissolution faces are calculated for various values of parameters, Ra, Pr and Sc. It is shown that the stronger the convection relative to the diffusion in solution is, the more backward the upperparts of the stable crystal growth face and dissolution face are inclined. The orientation and the shape of dissolution face hardly affect the stable shape of crystal growth face and vice versa.
基金Project(51678037)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(2015CB057802)supported by the National Basic Research Program of ChinaProject(BLX2015-20)supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China。
文摘A novel horizontal trap-door test system was devised in this study to analyze the face stability of shield tunnels in sands.The test system can be used to investigate both the longitudinal and cross sections of the face failure simultaneously at one single apparatus and was employed to perform face stability tests on small-scaled tunnel models at single gravity.The lateral support pressures and failure zones were studied with varying sand materials and earth covers.The results demonstrate that the tunnel face moves back,the lateral active earth pressure on the tunnel face decreases rapidly to a residual value,and the lateral pressure distribution can be categorized into three stages during the failure process:1)initial state;2)pressure dissipation stage;and 3)pressure zone diminution stage.Furthermore,face failure firstly develops from a stable condition to the local failure state,and then continues to develop to the global failure state that can be divided into two sub-zones with different failure mechanisms:rotational failure zone(lower zone)and gravitational failure zone(upper zone).Further discussion shows that under the effects of soil arching,the shape of the gravitational failure zone can adopt arch shaped(most frequent)and column shaped(in shallow tunnels).Limit support pressure for face stability usually appears atδ/D=0.2%−0.5%(ratio of face displacement to tunnel diameter).
基金the financial support provided by Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51978019,52278382)Beijing Natural Science Foundation,China(Grant No.8222004).
文摘In order to investigate the influence of face instability for tunnels with different burial depths in sandy cobble strata on earth pressure and the instability region,geomechanical model tests and numerical simulations were performed.The continuous excavation method was adopted to reduce the pressure of the soil bin and restore the real engineering situation.Earth pressure in three directions of the obser-vation section in front of the tunnel face was monitored during the tunneling of the shield.Evolutions of the lateral stress ratios at dif-ferent stages were also investigated.The instability area of the shield tunnel face in sandy cobble strata with different burial depth ratios during the instability stage was obtained based on the change ratio of earth pressure and compared with existing researches.The earth pressure began to change when the excavation was one shield diameter away from the observation section,and when the excavation reached the observation section,the earth pressure decreased significantly.The burial depth of shield tunnel in the sandy cobble strata has a significant impact on the evolution of soil arch and the size of the failure area.The numerical simulation of the continuum medium cannot reflect the stress redistribution characteristics of the granular body like sandy cobble strata,and the failure area or stress distur-bance area obtained by the model test is larger than the numerical simulation result.Existing methods have deviations in analyzing the failure area of shield tunnel face in sandy cobble strata.It provides not only guidance for shield tunnel excavation engineering in sandy cobble strata,but also a reference for the theoretical research on failure areas.
文摘The transition from grinding to chipping can be observed in tunnel boring machine(TBM) penetration test data by plotting the penetration rate(distance/revolution) against the net cutter thrust(force per cutter) over the full range of penetration rates in the test.Correlating penetration test data to the geological and geomechanical characteristics of rock masses through which a penetration test is conducted provides the ability to reveal the efficiency of the chipping process in response to changing geological conditions.Penetration test data can also be used to identify stress-induced tunnel face instability.This research shows that the strength of the rock is an important parameter for controlling how much net cutter thrust is required to transition from grinding to chipping.It also shows that the geological characteristics of a rock will determine how efficient chipping occurs once it has begun.In particular,geological characteristics that lead to efficient fracture propagation,such as fabric and mica contents,will lead to efficient chipping.These findings will enable a better correlation between TBM performance and geological conditions for use in TBM design,as a basis for contractual payments where penetration rate dominates the excavation cycle and in further academic investigations into the TBM excavation process.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.52208404 and 52378411).
文摘Using fiberglass bolts to reinforce a tunnel face is a practical auxiliary technology for ensuring tunnel face stability in soft ground.The reinforcing effect and the economics of this technology are significantly affected by bolt length.However,to date,the failure mechanism of bolt-reinforced tunnel faces with different bolt lengths has rarely been investigated.To reveal the failure mechanism of bolt-reinforced shallow tunnel faces,in this study,the stability of bolt-reinforced tunnel faces with different bolt lengths was investigated by using laboratory tests and numerical simulations,and a simplified theoretical model for practical engineering was proposed.The face support pressure and failure pattern for different bolt lengths during the face collapse process were obtained,and the influence of bolt length on face stability was clearly revealed.More specifically,the results show that face stability increases with increasing bolt length,and the reinforcing effect of face bolts is governed by the shear failure at the soil-grout interface first in the stable zone of the tunnel face and then in the failure zone.Once the bolt length in the stable zone is larger than that in the failure zone,face stability will not be improved with increasing bolt length;thus,this bolt length is referred to as the optimal bolt length L_(opt).The L_(opt)value is slightly larger than the initial failure range(in the unreinforced condition)and can be approximately calculated by L_(opt)=(1-0.0133u)D(u is the friction angle of the soil,and D is the tunnel diameter)in practical engineering.Finally,a simplified theoretical model was established to analyse the stability of reinforced tunnel faces,and the results are in good agreement with both laboratory tests and numerical simulations.The proposed model can be used as an efficient tool for the design of face bolts.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41972276)the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(No.2020J06013)the“Foal Eagle Program”Youth Top-notch Talent Project of Fujian Province(No.00387088).
文摘Face passive failure can severely damage existing structures and underground utilities during shallow shield tunneling,especially in coastal backfill sand.In this work,a series of laboratory model tests were developed and conducted to investigate such failure,for tunnels located at burial depth ratios for which C/D=0.5,0.8,1,and 1.3.Support pressures,the evolution of failure processes,the failure modes,and the distribution of velocity fields were examined through model tests and numerical analyses.The support pressure in the tests first rose rapidly to the elastic limit and then gradually increased to the maximum value in all cases.The maximum support pressure decreased slightly in cases where C/D=0.8,1,and 1.3,but the rebound was insignificant where C/D=0.5.In addition,the configuration of the failure mode with C/D=0.5 showed a wedge-shaped arch,which was determined by the outcropping shear failure.The configuration of failure modes was composed of an arch and the inverted trapezoid when C/D=0.8,1,and 1.3,in which the mode was divided into lower and upper failure zones.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51608407).
文摘This paper develops a new approach for reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face support pressure from a quantile value perspective.A surrogate model is constructed to calculate the collapse pressures of the random samples generated by a single run of Monte Carlo simulation(MCS).The cumulative distribution function(CDF)of the collapse pressure is then obtained and the support pressure aiming at a target failure probability is chosen as the upper quantile value of the collapse pressures.The proposed approach does not require repetitive reliability analyses compared to the existing methods.Moreover,a direct relationship between the target failure probability and the required support pressure is established.An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the implementation procedure.The accuracy of the reliability-based support pressures is verified by direct MCS incorporating with three-dimensional numerical simulations.Finally,the influencing factors,including the sample size of MCS,the correlation coefficient between random variables,the choice of experimental points,and the surrogate model,are investigated.This method can play a complementary role to available approaches due to its advantages of simplicity and efficiency.
基金National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2022YFB2602200)China Scholarship Council(Grant No.202106260179)+1 种基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52308412)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(Grant No.2023M732668)for their financial support.
文摘When tunnelling in difficult ground conditions,shield machine would inevitably produce significant ground loss and vibration,which may disturb the ground ahead of the tunnel face.In this paper,discrete element models calibrated by model tests were established to investigate the response of tunnel face under the coupling effects of unloading and cutterhead vibrations.The results show that the friction angle reduction under cyclic loading and vibration attenuation in the sandy ground are significant and can be estimated by the fitted exponential functions.Under cutterhead vibration,the tunnel face stability is undermined and the limit support pressure(LSP)increases to 1.4 times as that in the static case with the growth of frequency and amplitude.Meanwhile,the loosening zone becomes wider and the arching effect is weakened with the reduction of peak horizontal stress and the increase of vertical stress above the tunnel.Based on the numerical results,a pseudo-static method was introduced into the limit equilibrium analysis of the wedge-prism model for calculating the LSP under vibration.With an error rate less than 5.2%,the proposed analytical method is well validated.Further analytical calculation reveals that the LSP would increase with the growth of vibration amplitude,vibration frequency and covered depth but decrease with the increase of friction angle.This study can not only lay a solid foundation for the further investigation of ground loss,ground water and soft-hard heterogeneous ground under cutterhead vibration,but also provide meaningful references for the control of environmental disturbance in practice.
基金The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51978019 and 51978018)Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality,China(Grant Nos.8222004 and 8222005).
文摘This paper focuses on theoretical analytical models to calculate the limit support pressure and vertical earth pressure on the cutting face for tunnels.The failure zone is divided into two parts:a sliding failure zone and an upper loosen zone,and the limit support pressure calculation equation is derived.To verify the rationality of the theoretical model,it was compared with the existing theory,numerical simulation,and centrifugal test,and then the parameter analysis was carried out.The results show that the results of this paper agree well with the existing theory,numerical simulation,and centrifugal test.The inclination angle of the proposed mechanism is determined based on the results of the existing centrifuge test,and the recommended inclination angle is between 52°+φ/2 and 54°+φ/2.The method is proven to be safe and accurate.It can provide a theoretical basis for similar projects.
