Abstract
Tunneling in karstic geology confronts numerous challenges due to unpredictable occurrence of voids. The current approach of karstic void risk assessment is qualitative or semi-quantitative and lacks consideration of the spatial variability and distribution of voids. This often influences the pricing strategies, and design and construction activities on tunnel projects. This paper presents a geostatistical modeling-based methodology to develop a quantitative assessment of karstic void risk for a tunnel project in a karstic geological setting. The methodology is applied on an actual mixed-ground tunnel project situated in a karstic geological environment in Malaysia. The geology at the tunnel project site consists of sedimentary rock formations with limestone as the predominant rock type overlain by weak sedimentary residual soils. Pluri-Gaussian simulation (PGS) technique, a stochastic geostatistical-modeling algorithm, is applied to characterize the spatial distribution of voids in 3D along tunnel alignment. Simulations from PGS take into consideration the anisotropic distribution of voids on the tunnel project site. PGS utilizes void data from borehole investigations to model different void sizes (Vs) as categorical variables. The variability in multiple realizations from PGS technique is used to quantify the uncertainty in occurrence probabilities, number, and frequency of karstic voids. The proposed methodology demonstrates the ability to develop probabilistic estimates of occurrence frequency of different void sizes. Probabilistic assessments indicating 95% confidence interval (CI) on number of voids and respective occurrence probabilities are presented. The probabilistic assessment results are applied to estimate the grout quantity required for void treatment, while considering uncertainty in void occurrence. A minimum, mean, and maximum cumulative grout volume of about 2000 m3, 4000 m3, and 8000 m3 (for 95% CI), respectively, is estimated along the alignment.
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All data used for this study are available from the corresponding author by reasonable request.
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All code generated for this study is available from the corresponding author by reasonable request.
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Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the University Transportation Center for Underground Transportation Infrastructure (UTC-UTI) at the Colorado School of Mines for funding this research under Grant No. 69A3551747118 from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not of the DOT.
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RG: conceptualization, methodology, software, exploratory data analysis, visualization, and writing—original draft. JG: conceptualization, resources, writing-review, and editing. MAM: resources, supervision, funding acquisition, writing—review, and editing.
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Gangrade, R.M., Grasmick, J.G. & Mooney, M.A. Probabilistic Assessment of Void Risk and Grouting Volume for Tunneling Applications. Rock Mech Rock Eng 55, 2771–2786 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02528-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02528-6