Xue-Jian Chen , Pei-Pei Fang , Qiu-Nan Chen , Jun Hu , Kai Yao , Yong Liu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
期刊介绍:
Underground Space is an open access international journal without article processing charges (APC) committed to serving as a scientific forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of underground engineering. The journal welcomes manuscripts that deal with original theories, methods, technologies, and important applications throughout the life-cycle of underground projects, including planning, design, operation and maintenance, disaster prevention, and demolition. The journal is particularly interested in manuscripts related to the latest development of smart underground engineering from the perspectives of resilience, resources saving, environmental friendliness, humanity, and artificial intelligence. The manuscripts are expected to have significant innovation and potential impact in the field of underground engineering, and should have clear association with or application in underground projects.