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A Combined Support System Associated with the Segmental Lining in a Jointed Rock Mass: The Case of the Inclined Shaft Tunnel at the Bulianta Coal Mine

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Abstract

This paper presents a case study on the impact of jointed rock mass deformation on liner stability for an inclined excavation at the Bulianta Coal Mine. The tunnel was excavated by a single shield tunnel boring machine (TBM), with part of the excavation passing through a heavily jointed rock mass at great depth. Serious local instabilities occurred at one side of the liner due to highly asymmetric loading caused by large ground stresses and joint deformation. A support system with anchored cables and compressible mortar was combined with segmental lining to overcome these instabilities. With this case as a baseline, some numerical sensitivity analyses were performed to study how the ground might have responded to different combinations of support. The results show that an appropriately anchored cable system was able to limit the propagation of the asymmetric deformation of the jointed rock mass and significantly reduce the degree of anisotropy and the magnitude of the loads on the liner. The use of compressible mortar between the liner and the jointed rock mass further lowered the anisotropy of the load on the liner. There are optimum values for the rock bolt length and the compressible mortar thickness, beyond which these parameters have limited effects on the behaviour of the system. The combined effect of compressible mortar and anchor cables in promoting ground and liner stability is greater than the sum of the two individual support effects. These results clearly demonstrate that the combination of anchored cables and compressible mortar had a significant positive effect on the overall support system stability.

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Abbreviations

\(\sigma_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Normal stress

\(\varphi\) :

Angle of internal friction

\(\alpha\) :

Coefficient of multiplier

\(\delta\) :

Compression ratio

c :

Cohesion

\(\sigma_{{{\text{cap}}}}\) :

Cap stress

\(\Phi\) :

Friction angle

D :

Diameter of segmental lining

d :

Internal diameter of segmental lining

E :

Elastic modulus

\(K_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Normal stiffness

\(K_{{\text{s}}}\) :

Normal stiffness

\(J\_{\text{da}}\) :

Dip angle

\(J\_{\text{dr}}\) :

Dip direction

\(J\_s\) :

Spacing

\(J\_l\) :

Joint length

\(J\_t\) :

Joint thickness

\({\text{G}}\_{\text{c}}\) :

Grout cohesive capacity per unit length

\({\text{G}}\_{\text{s}}\) :

Grout stiffness per unit length

\({\text{F}}\_{\text{p}}\) :

Pretension load

\(\upsilon\) :

Poisson's ratio

W :

Ring width

R :

Radius of segmental lining

\(\sigma_{{\text{t}}}\) :

Tensile strength

\(\sigma_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Uniaxial compression strengthen

\(\gamma\) :

Unit weight

\(p_{{\text{y}}}\) :

Yield strength

\(P_{{\max}}\) :

Maximum pressure on the liner

\(T_{{\max}}\) :

Maximum thrust force of liner

\(B_{{\max}}\) :

Maximum positive bending moment of liner

\(D_{{\max}}\) :

Maximum deformation of liner

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC0802205), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51578460).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Xiongyu Hu, Chuan He & Ziquan Chen

  2. Center for Underground Construction & Tunneling, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Gabriel Walton

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  1. Xiongyu Hu
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  2. Chuan He
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  3. Gabriel Walton
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  4. Ziquan Chen
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Correspondence to Ziquan Chen.

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Hu, X., He, C., Walton, G. et al. A Combined Support System Associated with the Segmental Lining in a Jointed Rock Mass: The Case of the Inclined Shaft Tunnel at the Bulianta Coal Mine. Rock Mech Rock Eng 53, 2653–2669 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02056-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02056-9

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