• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.249-263
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• 2017

The expansion behavior of inflatable steel pipe rockbolt shows geometric nonlinearity due to its ${\Omega}-shaped$ section. Previous studies on the anchoring behavior of inflatable steel pipe rockbolt were mainly performed using theoretical method. However, those studies oversimplified the actual behavior by assuming isotropic expansion of inflatable steel pipe rockbolt. In this study, the anchoring behavior of the inflatable steel pipe rockbolt were investigated by the numerical method considering the irregularity of pipe expansion and other influencing factors. The expansion of inflatable steel pipe rockbolt, the contact stress distribution and the change of the average contact stress and the contact area during installation were analyzed. The contact stresses were developed differently depending on the constitutive behavior of rocks. Small contact stresses occurred in steel pipes installed in elasto-plastic rock compared to steel pipes installed in elastic rock. Also, the anchoring behaviors of the inflatable steel pipe rockbolt were different according to the stiffness of the rock. The steel pipe was completely unfolded in the case of the stiffness smaller than 0.5 GPa, but it was not fully unfolded in the case of the stiffness larger than 0.5 GPa for the given analysis condition. When the steel pipe is completely unfolded, the contact stress increases as the rock stiffness increases. However, the contact stress decreases as the rock stiffness increases when the steel pipe is not fully expanded.