Comparison of seismic effects during deep tunnel excavation with different methods

Abstract

The rapid release of strain energy is an important phenomenon leading to seismic events or rock failures during the excavation of deep rock. Through theoretical analysis of strain energy adjustment during blasting and mechanical excavation, and the interpretation of measured seismicity in the Jin-Ping II Hydropower Station in China, this paper describes the characteristics of energy partition and induced seismicity corresponding to different energy release rates. The theoretical analysis indicates that part of the strain energy will be drastically released accompanied by violent crushing and fragmentation of rock under blast load, and this process will result in seismic events in addition to blasting vibration. The intensity of the seismicity induced by transient strain energy release highly depends on the unloading rate of in-situ stress. For mechanical excavation, the strain energy, which is mainly dissipated in the deformation of surrounding rock, releases smoothly, and almost no seismic events are produced in this gradual process. Field test reveals that the seismic energy transformed from the rock strain energy under high stress condition is roughly equal to that coming from explosive energy, and the two kinds of vibrations superimpose together to form the total blasting excavation-induced seismicity. In addition, the most intense seismicity is induced by the cut blasting delay; this delay contributes 50% of the total seismic energy released in a blast event. For mechanical excavation, the seismic energy of induced vibration (mainly the low intensity acoustic emission events or mechanical loading impacts), which accounts only for 1.5‰ of that caused by in-situ stress transient releasing, can be ignored in assessing the dynamic response of surrounding rock.