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Research on the Evolution Mechanism of Water Inrush in Karst Tunnel and the Safety Thickness of Water-Resisting Rock Mass

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Abstract

Water inrush due to rock mass progressive failure in karst tunnels is one of the disasters in tunnel construction. The practical measures to ensure the safety of tunnel construction are to clarify the mechanism of water inrush and reserve the safety thickness. In this paper, the geomechanical model test and numerical simulation were carried out based on the Xiema Tunnel in Chongqing, China. The results of the displacement and hydraulic pressure of the monitoring points in the physical and numerical models were analyzed. In view of the reserved safety thickness between the tunnel face and the water-filled karst cave, the orthogonal numerical simulation tests were designed considering the influence of the tunnel diameter, the cave diameter, the cave water pressure, and the surrounding rock grade. The influence laws and response sensitivity of each factor on the safety thickness were obtained. According to the numerical simulation results and the multiple linear regression method, the formula of safety thickness was derived. Finally, some measures and suggestions for preventing and controlling water inrush disasters were obtained.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

All code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

Much of the work presented in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51879148, 51991391, U1806226), the Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong (2019GSF111030).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, Shandong, China

    Meixia Wang, Weimin Yang, Zongqing Zhou & Liping Li

  2. School of Qilu Transportation, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, Shandong, China

    Weimin Yang, Zongqing Zhou & Liping Li

  3. Shandong Highway Engineering Technology Research Center Co. Ltd, Jinan, 250200, Shandong, China

    Dunyi Deng & Qiwen Zhou

Authors
  1. Meixia Wang
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  2. Weimin Yang
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  3. Zongqing Zhou
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  4. Liping Li
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  5. Dunyi Deng
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  6. Qiwen Zhou
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. MW: Material preparation, Data collection, Writing Original Draft. WY: Project administration, Funding acquisition. ZZ: Resources, Supervision, Writing—Review and Editing. LL: Conceptualization, Methodology. DD: Formal analysis, QZ: Validation, Data Curation.

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Correspondence to Weimin Yang.

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We declared that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work.

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Wang, M., Yang, W., Zhou, Z. et al. Research on the Evolution Mechanism of Water Inrush in Karst Tunnel and the Safety Thickness of Water-Resisting Rock Mass. Geotech Geol Eng 40, 4539–4549 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02169-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02169-8

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