Numerical Analysis and Laboratory Experiment of Rapid Restoration of Underground Cavity Using Expansive Material without Excavation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the suitability of emergency underground cavity restoration method filling cavity with expansive material based on numerical analysis. For the numerical analysis, experiments were conducted to evaluate properties of expansive material. Based on the measured expansion pressure of the expansive material from the experiment, behavior of underground cavity restoration with various cavity dimensions (variation of height and width of rectangular-shape cavity) was numerically assessed. As a result of analysis, the vertical displacements of the top and bottom of cavity were significantly influenced by the cavity width and lateral displacements of cavity sides were highly dependent on cavity height. These vertical and lateral displacements were increased with increasing expansion pressure of expansive material. Also, when the expansion pressure was applied, the vertical displacement of the upper surface layer of the road was less dependent on cavity height, and was greatly influenced by cavity width.