Geophysical Resistivity Imaging for Upper Layer of Shield TBM Tunnel Ceiling

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recently shield TBM tunnelings are being applied to subway construction in Korean cities. Generally these kinds of tunnelings have the problems in the stability of ground such as subsidence because urban subway is constructed in the shallow depth. A sinkhole occurred on the road just above the tunnel during tunneling in Kwangju, so a survey for upper layer of the tunnel was needed. But conventional Ground Probing Radar can't be applicable due to the presence of steel-mesh screen in the shield segment, so no existent geophysical method is applicable in this site. Because the outer surface of each shield segment is electrically insulated, dipole-dipole resistivity method which is popular in engineering site investigation, was tried to this survey for the first time. Specially manufactured flexible ring-type electrodes were installed into the grouting holes at an interval of 2.4 m on the ceiling. The K-Ohm II system which has been developed by KIGAM and tested successfully in many sites, was used in this site. The system consists of 1000Volt-1Ampere constant-current transmitter, optically isolated 24 bit sigma-delta A/D conversion receiver—maximum 12 channel simultaneous measurements, and graphical automatic acquisition software for easy data quality check in real time. Borehole camera logging with circular white LED lighting was also done to investigate the state of the layer. Measured resistivity data lack of some stations due to failing opening lids of holes, shows general high-low trend well. The dipole-dipole resistivity inversion results discriminate (1) one approximately 4 meter diameter cavity (grouted but incompletely hardened, so low resistivity—less than 30ωm), (2) weak zone (100–200ωm), and (3) hard zone (high resistivity—more than 1000ωm) very well for the distance of 320 meters. The 2-D inversion neglects slight absolute 3-D effect, but we can get satisfactory and useful information. Acquired resistivity section and video tapes by borehole camera logging will be reserved and reused if some problem occurs in this site in the future.