Integrated approach of predicting rock stability in high mountain valley underground caverns

Abstract

High mountain valleys are characterized by the development of intricate ground stress fields due to geological processes such as tectonic stress, river erosion, and rock weathering. These processes introduce considerable stability concerns in the surrounding rock formations for underground engineering projects in these regions, highlighting the imperative need for rigorous stability assessments during the design phase to ensure construction safety. This paper introduces an innovative approach for the pre-evaluation of the stability of surrounding rocks in underground caverns situated within high mountain valleys. The methodology comprises several pivotal steps. Initially, we conduct inverse calculations of the ground stress field in complex geological terrains, combining field monitoring and numerical simulations. Subsequently, we ascertain stress-strength ratios of the surrounding rocks using various rock strength criteria. To assess the stability characteristics of the surrounding rocks in the 1^# spillway cave within our project area, we employ numerical simulations to compute stress-strength ratios based on different rock strength criteria. Furthermore, we undertake a comparative analysis, utilizing data from the 5^# Underground Laboratory (Lab 5) of Jinping II Hydropower Station, aligning the chosen rock strength criterion with the damage characteristics of Lab 5′s surrounding rocks. This analysis serves as the cornerstone for evaluating other mechanical responses of the surrounding rocks, thereby validating the pre-evaluation methodology. Our pre-evaluation method takes into account the intricate geological evolution processes specific to high mountain valleys. It also considers the influence of the initial geostress field within the geological range of underground caverns. This comprehensive approach provides a robust foundation for the analysis and assessment of the stability of surrounding rocks, especially in high mountain valley areas, during the design phase of underground engineering projects. The insights derived from this analysis hold substantial practical significance for the effective guidance of such projects.

Keywords

High mountain valley / Underground cavern / Stability of surrounding rock / On-site monitoring / Stress-strength ratio / Numerical simulation

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Fuyuan Tan: Writing - original draft, Validation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Haosen Guo: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Resources. Pengzhi Pan: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Software, Resources, Funding acquisition. Zhaofeng Wang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition. Xufeng Liu: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Investigation. Yangyi Zhou: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Investigation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52339001 and 52209149) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Grant No. 20232BAB204092).

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