Evaluating the Moisture Content Variation on Critical Strain of Geo-materials: A Case Study

The tunnel's stability during construction is a very important matter. Some methods have been proposed for stability evaluation, but the hazard warning levels (HWLs) are more applicable among these methods. Despite monitoring and applying HWLs, several collapses in Shibli twin tunnels in Iran have cast doubts on the accuracy of this criterion in the presence of water. In this study, the critical strains under different water contents were measured through uniaxial compressive strength tests on 11 different shale and marl samples. A comparison of laboratory tests and numerical results shows that the influence of the moisture content on the critical strain is negligible. In addition, the results show that there is no direct relationship between the critical strain and uniaxial compression strength

Prediction of overbreak depth in Ghalaje road tunnel using strength factor

It is well known that the overbreak caused by the blasting damage during tunnel excavation increases costs associated with filling the collapsed area with shotcrete and results in filing of a claim by the contractor. This paper outlines a new approach for prediction the overbreak depth during tunnel construction. Hence, firstly excavation damage zone (EDZ) are determined by average specific charge in each zone. Numerical modelling is used to simulate the EDZ around tunnel boundary and the overbreak depth are calculated by the rock strength factor. The predicted overbreak depth compared with observed field data from a case study. The results show that there exists an approximately up to 40% difference between the prediction and the observed volume of overbreak depth. Therefore, the method can be well used to predict the overbreak depth to estimate more precision of shotcrete and concrete volumes in tunnelling cost during design phase. Keywords: Overbreak, Blasting, Excavation damaged zone, Strength factor, Tunnelin