A novel numerical framework to simulate mechanical response and damage characteristics of mountain tunnels under faulting

Abstract

This paper presents a novel numerical framework that can simulate the mechanical response and damage characteristics of mountain tunnels under faulting more precisely and efficiently. Both the submodeling and two-stage models are adopted in the framework. The submodeling technique is used to obtain a precise simulation of tunnel-fault interaction while ensuring computational efficiency. The two-stage models can acquire accurate initial stress of the tunnel lining and simulate the tunnel-rock interaction during fault movement, which can also achieve the transition from static to dynamic analysis. The computational efficiency can be improved by about 73 % via the proposed numerical framework compared to the conventional numerical analysis when keeping the same mesh sizes. Moreover, overall lining damage indices and cross-sectional ovalization are introduced to quantitatively evaluate the respective damage and deformation of the tunnel lining cross-section, and damage level classifications for tunnel lining under faulting are established. Parametric sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate key factors affecting the mechanical damage behavior of mountain tunnels under strike-slip faulting, including fault dislocation, fault zone width, and the tunnel-fault intersection angle. The increasing fault dislocation causes larger tunnel-rock interaction around the fault plane, making the damage and deformation of tunnel lining around the fault plane more severe. The fault zone width has a significant impact on the damage and deformation range of tunnel lining. The tunnel-fault intersection angle contributes great influence on the magnitude and range of tunnel lining damage and deformation. The tunnel lining would suffer relatively severe damage and deformation when the two fault blocks move away from each other along the tunnel axial.