• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2019

Yieldable steel ribs have been widely applied in tunnels excavated in rheological rocks. For further understanding the influence of yieldable steel ribs on supporting effect, mechanical behavior of tunnels supported by them in rheological rocks is investigated in this paper. Taking into account the deformation characteristic of yieldable steel ribs, their deformation is divided into three stages. In order to modify the stiffness of yieldable steel ribs in different deformation stages, two stiffness correction factors are introduced in the latter two stages. Viscoelastic analytical solutions for the displacement and pressure in the rock-support interface in each deformation stage are obtained. The reliability of the theoretical analysis is verified by use of numerical simulation. It could be concluded that yieldable steel ribs are able to reduce pressure acting on them without becoming damaged through accommodating the rock deformation. The influence of stiffness correction factor in yielding deformation stage on pressure and displacement could be neglected with it remaining at a low level. Furthermore, there is a linearly descending relationship of pressure with yielding displacement in linear viscoelastic rocks.