Probabilistic simulations of TBM Tunnelling in highly fractured and faulted rocks

Jean-Paul Dudt, Erika Paltrinieri, Federica Sandrone, Jian Zhao
Elsevier, 2016
Article

Résumé

Despite the potential excellent performance of TBMs in favourable ground conditions, the presence of fault zones or heavily jointed rocks represent important geological hazards encountered during tunnel excavation. The effects of these challenging environments on the final tunnel construction time and costs can be investigated through a specific computer code: the Decisions Aid for Tunnelling (DAT). In this framework the DAT simulates the tunnel excavation in several geological profiles, where changing ground scenarios are described in terms of different “fault zone” classes (from highly fractured rocks, to faulted and crushed material). For each class a certain reduction of the TBM advance rate is specified based on real data analyses. Although the great uncertainty, the results give a reliable estimation of the effect of degrading rock mass conditions on the tunnelling performance. Finally, a real case-study has been simulated by DAT in order to validate the use of the “fault zone” classes (and the relative advance rate reductions) in the estimation of the final time of tunnel construction. The predicted time values prove to be very close to the ones recorded on the field, confirming the importance of a more detailed and comprehensive characterisation of difficult ground conditions such as fault and highly fractured zones.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/213822?ln=fr

À propos de ce résultat

Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.

Concepts associés

Chargement

Publications associées

Chargement

, ,

Concrete is a most important geomaterial as it is used for a large part in our buildings and infrastructures. According to Planetoscope (2012) its production is about 6 billion m3 per year (190 m3 each second) which makes it the most used manufactured material in the world. The alteration of concrete, tightly associated with the durability and security of our infrastructures, depends on its primary composition but also on a wide range of environmental factors (mechanical solicitations, freezing-thawing cycles, alkali-aggregate reactions, etc.). Hence, the contribution of geological or geological-related analysis to understand concrete alteration processes is required because this material is mainly composed of aggregates made of different minerals and rocks, the type and quality of which are important due to their influence on concrete behaviour. In this study, high resolution X-ray Computed tomography (X-ray micro-CT) was used to image 3D different types of concrete cores in order to characterize their respective state of alteration. The global alteration index (GAI) developed by Christe et al. (2010) for natural cataclastic rocks was applied to the segmented X-ray CT images of these concrete cores and compared to the results of microstructural analysis on thin slices and of compression tests. Also, an internal attack of concrete by hydrochloric acid was carried out in laboratory to simulate artificial alteration through carbonate dissolution and its process was monitored along time by X-ray micro-CT imaging (4D monitoring). Our first results show that X-ray CT imagery enables, without any destruction of the specimens, to characterize concrete internal features in terms of macroporosity, highly microporous cement paste, standard cement paste or aggregates. In particular, initial entrapped porosity as well as cracks are easily detected, characterised and quantified before and after mechanical testing. Petrographic analyses on thin sections enabled to verify the physical meaning of the X-ray CT-based detected features, such as the highly microporous cement paste, the opening of the microcracks and the detachment halos around aggregates which all act as weakening parameters. Despite the limited number of samples, a coherent relation between the GAI and the compressive strength of the concrete specimens is observed as the concrete compressive strength clearly decreases when the GAI increases. In this case, it logically means that the concrete with a higher porosity is less resistant. Moreover, the 4D monitoring of the acidic attack test led to dynamically show how the carbonated structure of the concrete was progressively altered. These preliminary results demonstrate that GAI, based on XRCT imagery analysis, can be used to evaluate the degree of alteration of concrete and could thus lead to estimate its strength. In more general terms, X-ray CT analysis opens new perspectives to relate the quality of concrete with its mechanical properties. This method could probably be further applied to a wide range of problems related to the inspection and maintenance of concrete infrastructures.

2014

Chargement

, ,

2014