Underground excavation shape optimization considering material nonlinearities

The shape of an underground opening is a major factor influencing the stability of the underground excavation. Obtaining an optimized shape is significant in civil and mining engineering applications for increasing stability and reducing costs. This paper presents an updated method for finding the optimal shape of an underground excavation using the latest bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) techniques considering material nonlinearities. Recent development in the BESO applications to underground excavation is discussed through illustrated examples. Details are given of the BESO method used to finding the optimal shape based on the global stiffness. The methodology of the stiffness based optimization techniques is described with examples of applications to underground excavation. Applications to underground void structures, such as cavern and tunnel, as well as underground solid structure such mine pillar are demonstrated. It is concluded that stiffness based optimization techniques are applicable to underground excavations and practical shape of an excavation can be generated as a result of the BESO application. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.