Diffusion law and diffusion model for backfill grouting in loess shield tunnel at different soil moisture

Abstract

Loess is a special type of soil whose properties are significantly affected by water. However, the grout diffusion law for backfill grouting in loess shield tunnels remains unknown. Based on a visual model experimental device, three experiments were conducted with 10%, 20%, and 30% loess moisture. A finite discrete element method was used to verify the grout diffusion mode, and parameters such as the tunnel buried depth, grout viscosity, and elastic modulus were considered to analyse the grout diffusion law. Experiments and numerical simulations show that the screening diffusion of grout occurs at low loess moisture, whereas splitting diffusion occurs at high loess moisture. The farthest splitting diffusion distance decreases as the tunnel buried depth, grout viscosity, and elastic modulus increase. In addition, based on capillary theory and geotechnical strength criteria, screening diffusion and splitting diffusion models were established. This study investigated the grout diffusion law and grout diffusion model, providing a reference for the design and construction of loess shield tunnels.

Keywords

Loess shield tunnel / Backfill grouting / Diffusion law / Diffusion model / Model experiment / Finite discrete element method

Data availability

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

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Sihan Li: Writing - original draft, Software, Methodology. Fei Ye: Funding acquisition. Caifei Zhang: Data curation. Yong Yang: Investigation. Tianhan Xia: Conceptualization. Yin Jiang: Visualization. Xingbo Han: Supervision.

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 research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51878060, and 52108360), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD (Grant No. 300102213206). The financial support is highly appreciated.

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