Reducing deformation effect of tunnel with Non-Deformable Support System by Jointed Rock Mass Model

Numerical modeling has been used widely in mining and construction industries in recent years. The most important issue in engineering projects designed with numerical modeling is accurate modeling of rock mass behavior. If the rock mass behavior is modeled accurately, fewer problems will be faced during field application of projects. Selection of the true material model is a very important issue in numerical modeling for the tunnel projects. Non-Deformable Support System (NDSS), which will be mentioned in the scope of this research, does not mean that it does not permit any deformation or is a very stiff system. NDSS is a support system that does not permit deformations exceeding specified deformation amounts which are calculated with determination of the accurate rock mass behavior by the true material model and it must be evaluated with support system and excavation advance specifically. The origin of the paper is that numerical modeling provides more comfortable results in tunneling in case one can determine rock mass deformation and failure behavior appropriately. In (NDSS), however, support system element can only be determined by proper numerical modeling analysis. Moreover, deformation values determined by NDSS analysis are accepted as limit values. Therefore, applied support system should be within deformation tolerance limits determined by NDSS analysis. Briefly, this paper is related to NDSS that should be determined by numerical modeling analysis. In this research, in regard to the excessive deformations in T-35 tunnel which is one of the 33 tunnels of Ankara-Istanbul High-Speed Railway Project, results of the in situ measurements in the tunnel excavated with the new developed NDSS and results of the numerical model made with jointed Rock Mass Model have been compared. It is determined that the results of the numerical modeling and the in situ measurements are very consistent with each other. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.