Geotechnical engineering

Stress (linguistics)

Simulation

Physics

Finite element method

Rock mass classification

Petrology

Structural engineering

Shield

Excavation

Geology

Mathematics

Mechanics

Discrete element method

Voronoi diagram

Computer simulation

Linguistics

Engineering

Philosophy

Geometry

International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences

A Voronoi-element based explicit numerical manifold method is adopted to investigate the evolution process and failure characteristics of the excavation damaged zone around a deeply buried TBM tunnel. An explicit time integration scheme of numerical manifold method is adopted as the numerical platform, based on which a Voronoi polygon assemblage is generated to approximate the blocky structure of the surrounding rock mass resulting from discrete fracture networks. A new mathematical mesh generation method is developed to better adapt to the Voronoi polygons and an excavation algorithm including both in-situ stress equilibrium and TBM excavation modelling techniques is proposed to capture the mechanical response of the TBM tunnelling process. With the newly developed VE-ENMM approach, the progressive failure process of the surrounding rock mass in a headrace tunnel of Yindajihuang Project is simulated and the formation mechanism of the excavation damaged zone is explored. Simulation results show that a large e...

Investigation of the excavation damaged zone around deep TBM tunnel using a Voronoi-element based explicit numerical manifold method