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Twin tunneling–induced deep-seated landslide in layered sedimentary rocks

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Abstract

Tunnel excavation in mountainous areas can sometimes reactivate or trigger landslides. The problem of tunneling-induced landslides may be influenced by not only the tunnel location and slope geological conditions but also construction deficiency without timely treatment. This paper presents a case study of Jimei landslide in Sichuan Province, China. This dormant landslide was largely induced by the excavation of a twin tunnel in the landslide body. Field investigation, slope movement monitoring, and numerical simulations show that the formation mechanism of the Jimei landslide triggered by tunneling can be summarized as follows: (1) The adverse geological conditions of stratified sliding mass consists of multilayer sliding surfaces and cracked sliding blocks. (2) The rock surrounding the tunnel underwent large and continuous deformation because of construction deficiency without timely treatment. (3) There was a reduction in the shear strength and increase in the bulk density of the sliding mass because of rainfall infiltration during the rainy season.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the reviewers and editor for their careful reading and insightful comments.

Funding

The financial support for this research was provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1504901) and the Construction S&T Project of Department of Transportation of Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2020A01).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sichuan Provincial Highway Planning, Survey, Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., Chengdu, 610041, China

    Qiang Cheng, Tianxiang Liu & Anhui Wei

  2. Key Laboratory of High-Speed Railway Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Shiguo Xiao & Tingjun Chen

  3. Department of Geological Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Shaohong Li

Authors
  1. Qiang Cheng
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  2. Shiguo Xiao
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  3. Tianxiang Liu
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  4. Tingjun Chen
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  5. Shaohong Li
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  6. Anhui Wei
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shiguo Xiao.

Appendix

Appendix

Formulas for the deformation modulus and normal and shear stiffness of a joint

The following empirical relations may be used to compute the deformation modulus (Em) (Hoek and Marinos, 2000; Hoek and Brown, 2019):

$${E}_{m}\left(\mathrm{GPa}\right)=\sqrt{\frac{{\sigma }_{ci}}{100}}{10}^{\left(\left(\mathrm{GSI}-10\right)/40\right)}$$
(1)

where \({\upsigma }_{ci}\) is the UCS of the intact rock, and GSI is the geological strength index in the Hoek–Brown failure criterion. GSI ranges from 5 (for highly fractured and poor rock masses) to 100 (for intact rock), depending on the rock structure and the condition of joints. The diagram proposed by Hoek and Marinos (2000) and RocLab software was employed to estimate the GSI of the bedrock and sliding mass.

The following empirical relations may be used to compute the normal stiffness of a joint (Kn) (Barton 1972):

$${K}_{n}=\frac{{E}_{i}{E}_{m}}{L({E}_{i}-{E}_{m})}$$
(2)

where Ei is the modulus of intact rock, and L is the mean spacing of the joint.

The following empirical relations may be used to compute the shear stiffness of a joint (Ks) (Barton 1972):

$${K}_{s}=\frac{{G}_{i}{G}_{m}}{L({G}_{i}-{G}_{m})}$$
(3)

where, Gm is the shear modulus of the rock mass, and Gi is the shear modulus of intact rock.

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Cheng, Q., Xiao, S., Liu, T. et al. Twin tunneling–induced deep-seated landslide in layered sedimentary rocks. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 9071–9088 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02482-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02482-1

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