Abstract
Tunnel excavation tends to be affected by karst cavities in karst areas. Some cavities that are at low risk of causing safety issues without treatment tend to be ignored in the design and construction of tunnels to reduce costs. It is necessary to gain a better understanding of the effect of such a cavity on the seepage around a tunnel, the deformation of the surrounding rock, and the stress of the tunnel lining. In this paper, a two-dimensional rock-tunnel hydromechanical model with a karst cave was established with FLAC3D finite difference software to simulate the tunnel excavation with the consideration of seepage. Numerical simulations were performed to analyze the deformation of the surrounding rock, the seepage field of the surrounding rock, and the stress of the tunnel lining, and the results were compared for scenarios when the karst cave is at different locations relative to the tunnel. These results can provide a reference for the design and construction of tunnel engineering in rock with karst caves.
Highlights
With the development of the mileage and scope of tunnels, tunnels are inevitably constructed in some complicated geological areas
Shan et al [14] analyzed the safe thickness between a tunnel and a nearby hidden cave and the factors influencing the rock-breaking mechanism and conducted numerical simulations and multiple regression analyses to study the safe distance between the tunnel and the karst cave
The deformation of the surrounding rock, the seepage field of the surrounding rock, and the stress of the tunnel lining are analyzed by means of numerical simulations of several scenarios in which the karst cave is at different locations relative to the tunnel [21], and the results are compared. e results can provide some reference for the design and construction of tunnel engineering in water-rich areas with karst caves
Summary
With the development of the mileage and scope of tunnels, tunnels are inevitably constructed in some complicated geological areas. Scholars have explored which are the main influencing factors for tunnel excavation in karst areas, and the safe distance between tunnels and karst caves has been studied. Huang et al [9] proposed an evaluation model of karst cave development conditions, construction conditions, and control measures, performed a statistical analysis, and concluded that the groundwater level, support structure, and surrounding rock quality were the main factors influencing the stability of tunnels in karst areas. Chen and Sha [12] studied the stress-strain characteristics of the surrounding rock and supporting structure of a tunnel with a superlarge karst cave at different distances through field tests and numerical simulations. The deformation of the surrounding rock, the seepage field of the surrounding rock, and the stress of the tunnel lining are analyzed by means of numerical simulations of several scenarios in which the karst cave is at different locations relative to the tunnel [21], and the results are compared. e results can provide some reference for the design and construction of tunnel engineering in water-rich areas with karst caves
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