• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.217-235
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• 2017

The stability prediction of shallow buried tunnels is one of the most difficult tasks in civil engineering. The aim of this work is to predict the state of collapse in shallow tunnel in layered soils by employing non-associated flow rule and nonlinear failure criterion within the framework of upper bound theorem. Particular emphasis is first given to consider the effects of dilation on the collapse mechanism of shallow tunnel. Furthermore, the seepage forces and surface settlement are considered to analyze the influence of different dilation coefficients on the collapse shape. Two different curve functions which describe two different soil layers are obtained by virtual work equations under the variational principle. The distinct characteristics of falling blocks up and down the water level are discussed in the present work. According to the numerical results, the potential collapse range decreases with the increase of the dilation coefficient. In layered soils, both of the single layer's dilation coefficient and two layers' dilation coefficients increase, the range of the potential collapse block reduces.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.491-503
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• 2021

Shallow tunnels are vulnerable to earthquakes, and shallow ground is usually inhomogeneous. Based on the limit equilibrium method and variational principle, a solution for the seismic collapse mechanism of shallow tunnel in inhomogeneous ground is presented. And the finite difference method is employed to compare with the analytical solution. It shows that the analytical results are conservative when the horizontal and vertical stresses equal the static earth pressure and zero at vault section, respectively. The safety factor of shallow tunnel changes greatly during an earthquake. Hence, the cyclic loading characteristics should be considered to evaluate tunnel stability. And the curve sliding surface agrees with the numerical simulation and previous studies. To save time and ensure accuracy, the curve sliding surface with 2 undetermined constants is a good choice to analyze shallow tunnel stability. Parameter analysis demonstrates that the horizontal semiaxis, acceleration, ground cohesion and homogeneity affect tunnel stability greatly, and the horizontal semiaxis, vertical semiaxis, tunnel depth and ground homogeneity have obvious influence on tunnel sliding surface. It concludes that the most applicable approaches to enhance tunnel stability are reducing the horizontal semiaxis, strengthening cohesion and setting the tunnel into good ground.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.505-515
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• 2017

Based on the collapse characteristics of a shallow rectangular cavity, a three-dimensional failure mechanism which can be used to study the collapsing region of the rock mass above a shallow cavity roof is constructed. Considering the effects of surcharge pressure and surface bolt on the collapsing block, the external rate of works produced by surcharge pressure and surface bolt are included in the energy dissipation calculation. Using variational approach, an analytic expression of surface equation for the collapsing block, which can be used to study the collapsing region of the rock mass above a shallow cavity roof, is derived in the framework of upper bound theorem. Based on the analytic expression of surface equation, the shape of the collapsing block for shallow cavity is drawn. Moreover, the changing law of the collapsing region for different parameters indicates that the collapsing region of rock mass decreases with the increase of the density of surface bolt. This conclusion can provide reference for practicing geotechnical engineers to achieve an optimal design of supporting structure for a shallow cavity.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.571-580
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• 2018

The failure mechanism of tunnel roof is investigated with upper bound theorem of limit analysis. The stochastic settlement and nonlinear failure criterion are considered in the present analysis. For the collapse of tunnel roof, the surface settlement is estimated by the simplified stochastic medium theory. The failure curve expressions of collapse blocks in homogeneous and in layered soils are derived, and the effects of material parameters on the potential range of failure mechanisms are discussed. The results show that the material parameters of initial cohesion, nonlinear coefficient and unit weight have significant influences on the potential range of collapse block in homogeneous media. The proportion of collapse block increases as the initial cohesion increases, while decreases as the nonlinear coefficient and the unit weight increase. The ground surface settlement increases with the tunnel radius increasing, while the possible collapse proportion decreases with increase of the tunnel radius. In layered stratum, the study is investigated to analyze the effects of material parameters of different layered media on the proportion of possible collapse block.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.867-877
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• 2016

Collapse shape of tunnel roof in layered Hoek-Brown rock media is investigated within the framework of upper bound theorem. The traditional collapse mechanism for homogeneous stratum is no longer suitable for the present analysis of roof stability, and it would be necessary to propose a curve failure mode to describe the velocity discontinuity surface in layered media. What is discussed in the paper is that the failure mechanism of tunnel roofs, consisting of two different functions, is proposed for layered rock media. Then it is employed to investigate the impending roof failure. Based on the nonlinear Hoek-Brown failure criterion, the collapse volume of roof blocks are derived with the upper bound theorem and variational principle. Numerical calculations and parametric analysis are carried out to illustrate the effects of different parameters on the shape of failure mechanism, which is of overriding significance to the stability analysis of tunnel roof in layered rock media.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.569-575
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• 2018

The stability of shallow cavities with an arbitrary profile is a difficult issue in geotechnical engineering. This paper investigates this problem on the basis of the upper bound theorem of limit analysis and the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. The influence of pore pressure is taken into consideration by regarding it as an external force acting on rock skeleton. An objective function is constructed by equating the internal energy dissipation to the external force work. Then the Lagrange variation approach is used to solve this function. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing the analytical solutions with the published research. The relations between shallow and deep cavity are revealed as well. The detaching curve of cavity roof with elliptical profile is obtained. In order to facilitate the application of engineering practice, the numerical results are tabulated, which play an important role in tunnel design and stability analysis of roof. The influential factors on potential collapse are taken into consideration. From the results, the impact of various factors on the extent of detaching is seen intuitively.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2020

In the seismic design of bridges, formation of plastic hinges plays an important role in the dissipation of seismic energy. In the case of conventional fixed-base bridges, the plastic hinges are allowed to form in the superstructure alone. During seismic event, such bridges may be safe from collapse but the superstructure undergoes significant plastic deformations. As an alternative design approach, the plastic hinges are guided to form in the soil thereby utilizing the inevitable yielding of the soil. Rocking foundations work on this concept. The formation of plastic hinges in the soil reduces the load and displacement demands on the superstructure. This study aims at evaluating the seismic response of bridge pier supported on rocking shallow foundation. For this purpose, a BNWF model is implemented in OpenSees platform. The capability of the BNWF model to capture the SSI effects, nonlinear behavior and dynamic loading response are validated using the centrifuge and shake table test results. A comparative study is performed between the seismic response of the bridge pier supported on the rocking shallow foundation and conventional fixed-base foundation. Results of the study have established the beneficial effects of using the rocking shallow foundation for the seismic response analysis of the bridge piers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.2
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• pp.208-215
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• 2019

The goal of this study was to analyze the reactivity of a volumetric water content sensor (soil moisture sensor) and tensiometer and to review their use in the early detection of a shallow landslide. We attempted to demonstrate shallow and rapid slope collapses using three different soil ratios under artificial rainfall at 120 mm/h. Our results showed that the measured value of the volumetric water-content sensor converged to 30~37%, and that of the tensiometer reached -3~-5 kPa immediately before the collapse of the soil under all three conditions. Based on these results, we discussed a temporal range for early warnings of landslides using measurements of the volumetric water content sensors installed at the bottom of the soil slope, but could not generalize and clarify the exact timing for these early warnings. Further experiments under various conditions are needed to determine how to use both sensors for the early detection of shallow landslides.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2007

In case of an urban tunnel, the displacement of ground base controls the tunnel design because it is built on shallow and unconsolidated ground many times. There are more insufficiency to describe the ground movement which coincides in the measured result of the situ because the design of an urban tunnel is dependent on the method of numerical analysis used to the existing elastic and elasto-plastic models. We studied about the prediction for the ground movement of a shallow tunnel in unconsolidated ground, mechanism of collapse, and settlement. Also this paper shows comparison with the existing elastic and elasto-plastic model using the unlinear analysis of the strain-softening model. We can model the real ground movement as the increasement of ground surface inclination or occurrence of shear band by using strain-softening model for the result of ground movement of an urban NATM tunnel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.742-753
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• 2008

Currently an increasing number of urban tunnels with small overburden are excavated according to the principle of the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). Therefore, a possibility of a tunnel collapse during excavation is getting higher in a proportionate manner. This paper will analyze causes the failure mechanism of a shallow NATM tunnel for different geological conditions, ground-water and invert solutions by investigation typical collapse site during tunnel construction. In this paper, this analysis performed two phase, firstly, the field investigation considering displacement measurement, ground-water level, geological characteristic, secondly, the numerical simulation considering the exist of invert construction and the effect of ground-water. It has been found that environmental factors such as state of underground water or construction sequences could influence failure mechanism of a shallow tunnel.