• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.265-274
• /
• 2010

In many tunnels, falling or sliding of rock blocks often occur, which cannot be predicted because of the complexity of rock discontinuities and it has brought an exponential increase in costs and time to manage. It is difficult to estimate the properties of rock masses before the tunnel excavation. The observational design and construction method in tunnels has been becoming important recently. In this study, a new hybrid stochastic-deterministic rock block analysis method for the prediction of the unstable rock blocks before the tunnel excavation is proposed, and then applied to the tunnel construction based on actual rock discontinuity information observed in the field. The comparisons and investigations with the analytical results in the tunnel construction have confirmed the validity and applicability of this new hybrid stochastic-deterministic rock block analysis method in tunnels.