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Experimental Investigation of Spalling Failure of D-Shaped Tunnel Under Three-Dimensional High-Stress Conditions in Hard Rock

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Abstract

The D-shaped cross section is a commonly used tunnel cross section in underground engineering. To simulate the failure process of a D-shaped hole under deep three-dimensional (3D) high-stress conditions, true-triaxial tests were conducted on cubic granite specimens with a through D-shaped hole, and the failure process of the hole sidewall was recorded in real time. Results show that the spalling failure process of the D-shaped hole sidewall can be divided into four periods: calm, fine particle ejection, crack generation and propagation, and rock slab gradually buckling and spalling. Afterwards, symmetrical V-shaped notches were formed on both sidewalls between the corner and arch springing. The spalling failure shows tensile failure characteristics. Under high vertical stress and constant horizontal axial stress, increasing the lateral stress reduces the severity of the spalling failure and the depth of the V-shaped notch. The initial failure vertical stress of the D-shaped hole sidewall is higher than that of circular hole sidewall, and the failure of D-shaped hole sidewall is mainly characterized by static failure. The failure of the circular hole sidewall is a more severe dynamic failure. When the vertical applied stress is the maximum principal stress, the position of the V-shaped notch tip is 0.20–0.25 h (h is the height of the D-shaped tunnel) from the tunnel floor, whereas that in the circular tunnel is 0.5 d (d is the diameter of the circular tunnel) from the tunnel floor. Specific support schemes should therefore be designed for tunnels with different cross sections according to the damage location, depth of failure zone, and severity of failure.

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Abbreviations

d :

Diameter of the circular tunnel

h :

Height of the D-shaped tunnel

\(\sigma_{h\max }^{{}} ,\sigma_{h\min }^{{}}\) :

Maximum horizontal geostress and minimum horizontal geostress

\(\sigma_{v}\) :

Vertical geostress

\(\sigma_{X} ,\sigma_{Y} ,\sigma_{Z}\) :

Horizontal axial stress, lateral stress, and vertical stress

3D:

Three-dimensional

CT:

Computed tomography

ISRM:

International Society for Rock Mechanics

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41630642 and 51904335), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (Grant No. 2019zzts310).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Xuefeng Si, Linqi Huang, Xibing Li, Chunde Ma & Fengqiang Gong

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Fengqiang Gong

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  1. Xuefeng Si
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  2. Linqi Huang
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Correspondence to Linqi Huang.

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Si, X., Huang, L., Li, X. et al. Experimental Investigation of Spalling Failure of D-Shaped Tunnel Under Three-Dimensional High-Stress Conditions in Hard Rock. Rock Mech Rock Eng 54, 3017–3038 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02280-3

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