Abstract
Geological and geotechnical surveys, in general, should precede the excavation to ensure the safety of the tunnel and should be followed up according to the various geological condition during the excavation. However actually the standard support patterns which were decided during the design step used be insisted for the whole excavation steps in spite of the various geological conditions. OO tunnel was excavated with NATM and a support pattern type-V in weak rocks. When the tunnel was excavated up to 25m long, the severe displacement was generated in the portal area and the shotcrete was damaged to make the cracks and the tunnel face was totally collapsed. It might happen owing to the one-day heavy rain, but the exact reason for that accident should be found out and the new optimal support patternt needed. Consequently three dimensional numerical analysis was applied for the evaluation of the cause of the tunnel collapse instead of two dimensional analysis, because three dimensional analysis can show better the real field phenomenon than two dimensional analysis in which the load distribution methods are adopted for the tunnel excavation. We could simulate the actual situations with three dimensional finite difference code and propose the new optimal support patterns.
