A physical and numerical investigation of the failure mechanism of weak rocks surrounding tunnels

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The large-scale construction of railway tunnels in China is hindered by several challenges, including large depths, large tunnel cross-sections, and fragile geological conditions. In this paper, we explored a new physical and numerical simulation method that improves upon the currently used methods to investigate the deformation and failure modes of weak rocks surrounding a tunnel. We also compared the results from physical tests and numerical simulations with the field measurements to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed numerical simulation method. In the physical model test, an artificial speckle field was developed by staining quartz sand particles and mixing the particles with barite powder and petroleum jelly in preset proportions. The artificial speckle field was employed in the digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) to monitor the evolution of the strain field on the surface of the plain strain model for tunneling during loading. A secondary strain-softening constitutive model using the numerical modeling code FLAC3D was developed (degradation constitutive model) by considering the deformation modulus degradation in the numerical simulation. The failure mode of weak rocks surrounding a tunnel in the physical model test was examined using the developed degradation constitutive model. Both the physical and numerical results revealed that the least stable area was the shear wedge along the minimum principal stress, which was confirmed in the damage zone of the surrounding rocks. The results were consistent with previous research findings. The results of the DSCM in the physical model test indicated that the shear wedge in the middle part of the tunnel and the cracks around the arch of the tunnel were induced by shear strain, whereas the collapse of the arch was attributed to a combination of tensile strain and shear strain. A comparison of the physical and numerical simulation results demonstrated that the degradation constitutive model can be used to describe the extent and depth of the excavation damage zone of tunneling. A comparison of the displacements from the numerical simulation and field measurements indicated that the degradation model can be used to capture the displacement of weak rocks surrounding tunnels.