STABILITY OF TUNNELS CONSIDERING THE GRAVITY LOADING AND THE LINING STIFFNESS

In deriving the convergence –confinement method curves for a tunnel, convergences of side wall, roof and floor may be different, because of the weight of the failed or plastic rock mass. In this paper, a semi-analytical method of the ground response curve and the lining characteristic curve for a tunnel excavated in an elastoplastic strain-softening rock mass, considering axial-symmetric condition, is proposed to study the effects of the weight of the plastic or failed region developed around tunnels. In the proposed method, Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion and plastic potential function are used for the ground medium. The gravity loading is considered as a radial body force being applied to the ground medium which is not the same for different directions. Two flexible and inflexible lining theories are presented for considering the concrete lining stiffness. In flexible lining theory, the influence of the lining is considered as a uniform internal pressure; while, inflexible lining theory, the lining is taken as a thick-walled cylinder. By combining these two theories the concrete lining stiffness can be modelled. The derived differential equations cannot be integrated analytically; thus, they are solved by invoking finite difference approximations. Several illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method and to examine the effects of the gravity loads. The results obtained by the proposed method show that the gravity loads may affect the tunnel convergence, especially when the plastic zone is wide.