Initial support distance of a non-circular tunnel based on convergence constraint method and integral failure criteria of rock

Abstract

for deep tunnel projects, selecting an appropriate initial support distance is critical to improving the self-supporting capacity of surrounding rock. In this work, an intuitive method for determining the tunnel’s initial support distance was proposed. First, based on the convergence-confinement method, a three-dimensional analytical model was constructed by combining an analytical solution of a non-circular tunnel with the Tecplot software. Then, according to the integral failure criteria of rock, the failure tendency coefficients of hard surrounding rock were computed and the spatial distribution plots of that were constructed. On this basis, the tunnel’s key failure positions were identified, and the relationship between the failure tendency coefficient at key failure positions and their distances from the working face was established. Finally, the distance from the working face that corresponds to the critical failure tendency coefficient was taken as the optimal support distance. A practical project was used as an example, and a reasonable initial support distance was successfully determined by applying the developed method. Moreover, it is found that the stability of hard surrounding rock decreases rapidly within the range of 1.0D (D is the tunnel diameter) from the working face, and tends to be stable outside the range of 1.0D.

Keywords

tunnel engineering / convergence confinement method / integral failure criteria of rock / non-circular tunnel / initial supporting distance

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