• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1529-1539
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• 2013

Recent case studies in Japan have shown that rockbolts are commonly installed at an oblique angle to the excavation direction of the tunnel, instead of at a right angle, due to restriction of the working space. In particular, in the case of expansion in an existing tunnel, the working space can be very small, due to the large protective structures necessary to operate within an existing tunnel. In this case, where both the current use of the existing tunnel, and the reinforcement of the ground around the tunnel are required, the effects of installation angles and patterns of rockbolts are important factors in the design process. Therefore, in this study, a total number of 24 model tests are performed, to investigate the reinforcing effects of system bolting installed obliquely from the excavation direction of the tunnel, by changing the installation angle of bolts, longitudinal distance, and bonded length of bolts. The model test results indicate that the relaxed load ratio decreases, with the increase of both the bonded lengths and the number of the installed bolts, resulting in the decrease of the supported area by one bolt. Two-dimensional numerical analysis, which considered the reinforcement effect of inclined system bolting as the change of engineering properties near the tunnel, demonstrated that the deflection patterns at the tunnel crown in the numerical simulations, show a similar tendency to those measured in the model tests.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.5C
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• pp.231-238
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• 2012

The rockbolt functions as a main support, which restricts enlargement of the plasticity area and increases stability in the original ground around tunnels, and prevents a second deformation of an excavated surface by supplementing vulnerability arising from opening of the excavated surface. System bolting is generally applied if ground conditions are bad. System bolting is generally installed perpendicular to the excavation direction in every span. If a place is narrow, or it is difficult to insert bolts due to construction conditions, it may be connected and used with short bolts, or installed obliquely. In this study, laboratory model tests were performed to analyze the effect of the ground being reinforced by inclined bolts, based on a bending theory that assumes that the reinforced ground is a simple beam. In all test cases, deflections and vertical earth pressures induced by overburden soil pressure were measured. Total of 99 model tests were carried out, by changing the installation angle of bolts, lateral and longitudinal distance of bolts, and soil height. The model test results indicated that when the installation angle of bolts was less than $75^{\circ}$, deflections of model beams tended to increase rapidly. Also, the relaxed load that was calculated by earth pressure was rapidly increased when the installation angle of bolts was less than $75^{\circ}$. However, the optimum installation angle of inclined bolts was judged to be in the range of $90^{\circ}{\sim}75^{\circ}$. Also, as might be expected, the reinforcement effect of bolts was increased when the longitudinal and lateral distance of bolts was decreased.