Numerical simulation of a discontinuous gallery lining's behavior, and its interaction with rock

Abstract

Deep excavation in some geological media needs lining of the gallery. This could limit the extent of the so-called excavation damaged zone and the resulting convergence of the material due to tunneling. Boom clay, the reference potential host rock in Belgium for disposal of high-level radioactive waste, is one of these media for which lining of the gallery walls is essential. A correct simulation of the lining behavior in the course of the excavation process, where the rock comes into contact with the lining, and in the long term, remains a significant challenge in analysis of the whole coupled phenomena of rock in interaction with the lining. This study aims to numerically model the lining behavior. The main objective is to develop a model that could realistically simulate the behavior of a discontinuous lining made of concrete segments. We propose to numerically analyze the response of the blocks in contact with each other and in interaction with rock, with the use of zero-thickness interface elements. To validate the developed model and a proposed approach, a particular analysis compares the obtained results with the available in situ measurements. This study then discusses the deficiency of the simplistic model that considers a continuous lining. In addition, regarding the contact mechanism on the interface between the rock and the lining, the obtained results demonstrate an interesting relation between the contact phenomena and the shear banding within the rock around the gallery. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.