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Xu, Tang, Zhao - 2012 - Modeling of Rheological Deformation of Inhomogeneous Rock and Associated Time-Dependent Response of Tunnels
Xu, Tang, Zhao - 2012 - Modeling of Rheological Deformation of Inhomogeneous Rock and Associated Time-Dependent Response of Tunnels
Abstract: An exponential creep model on the basis of material properties degradation law was applied in the paper to simulate the rheo-
logical behavior of inhomogeneous rock and time-dependent response of rock tunnels. The primary, secondary, and tertiary creep regimes
associated with damage were observed in the simulations, indicating that the macroscopic creep failure is linked to clusters of microstructure
damage evolution at a mesoscale. Simulations on the time-dependent response of tunnels in the long-term under different coefficients of
lateral pressure show that creep deformation and damage occurs in rock mass at tunnel sidewalls around rock mass under the coefficient of
lateral pressure less than unity, whereas creep deformation and damage occurs at the roof and floor of the tunnel under the coefficient of lateral
pressure larger than unity. Under the hydrostatic pressure of the coefficient of lateral pressure equal to unity, creep deformation and damage
randomly occurs and damage localization forms and failure occurs at weak zone of the tunnel. Furthermore, tunnel closure displacements of
the tunnel wall along the horizontal direction under three coefficients of lateral pressure are directly proportional to the coefficients of lateral
pressure. Tunnel closure will be a maximum in the maximum principal stress direction and a minimum perpendicular to it for the coefficients
of lateral pressure differing from unity. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000130. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
CE Database subject headings: Tunnels; Rheology; Deformation; Rocks; Time dependence; Damage; Simulation.
Author keywords: Tunnels; Rheological model; Time-dependent response; Damage; Numerical simulation.
of the ground. These elements can be connected in various fashions, effects of progressive microcracking, void nucleation, and growth
such as the Maxwell model, Kelvin model, Kelvin-Voigt model, Bur- at high stress levels on constitutive law, making use of a set of state
ger model, and others. The mathematical relationship of strain, stress, variables modifying the material behavior at the macroscopic level.
and time is then derived directly from the way the elements are con- Making use of isotropic continuum damage formulation, the con-
nected, and the parameters of the models are obtained from curve- stitutive law for an isotropic and elastic material at instantaneous
fitting of creep test data of the material. The rheological models that loading can be written as (Lemaitre and Chaboche 2001)
are commonly used only give a simple approximation of the strain-
1þv v
stress time relationship of inhomogeneous rock. To closely describe εij ¼ σij σkk δ ij ð1Þ
the real relationship of inhomogeneous rock, the model would require E E
a large number of elements (Chang and Yang 1982; Kaiser 1979) that
would in turn result in a complicated mathematical equation having a E ¼ E 0 ð1 DÞ ð2Þ
large number of parameters that are not so simple to determine. Often,
these parameters have no indication to the rock property. Empirical where εij = damaged elastic strain tensor; σij = stress tensor; E and
creep models are derived directly from the observed relationship of E0 = elastic modulus of the damaged and the undamaged material,
time, stress, and strain or strain rate of creep test results or in situ rheo- respectively; D = isotropic damage variable; v = Poisson’s coeffi-
logical observations. Experimental observations, such as an increase of cient; and δ ij = Kronecker symbol.
dilatancy and hydraulic permeability, a decrease of elastic modulus, In the case of a uniaxial state of stress (σ11 ≠ 0, σ22 ¼ σ33 ¼ 0),
and the recording of acoustic emission, attest that crack propagation the constitutive relation can be rewritten in terms of longitudinal
is acting during creep (Chen 2003; Voight 1988). The models are usu- stress and strain components only as
ally expressed in simple mathematical forms with a small number of
parameters. Empirical models have been successfully used to describe σ11 ¼ E0 ð1 DÞε11 ð3Þ
observed creep behavior of soil and rock. The commonly used em-
Hence, for uniaxial loading, the constitutive law is explicitly
pirical creep models include the power law (Amitrano and Helmstetter
dependent on damage index D only.
2006; Kemeny 1991; Singh 1975; Tsenn and Carter 1987), the expo-
The model is on the basis of progressive isotropic elastic damage.
nential law (Cruden 1971), and the hyperbolic law (Yang et al. 1995).
When the stress on an element exceeds a damage threshold,
Creep behavior of most rocks is found to be adequately described by
its elastic modulus E is modified according to Eq. (2). At the
the power law. For clayey soils, weak shale, mudstone, and faulted
beginning, the element is considered to be elastic and its elastic prop-
rocks, the exponential law and the hyperbolic law are more commonly
erties can be defined by Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The
used. These empirical laws have been used in developing viscoelastic
stress-strain curve of the element is considered linear elastic until the
solutions for prediction of tunnel closure and ground pressure on
given damage threshold is attained, and then is followed by soften-
supports.
ing. In the model, an elastic damage model with constant residual
In this research, the creep deformation of inhomogeneous rock
strength is used. The maximum tensile strain criterion and modified
was simulated by a rheological model using a simple empirical
Mohr-Coulomb criterion with tension cutoff (Brady and Brown
creep law, and the time-dependent response of tunnel under various
2004; Jeager et al. 2007) are selected as two damage thresholds.
coefficients of lateral pressure was also investigated to study the
At any event, the tensile strain criterion is preferential because
creep deformation and damage evolution of tunnels and attempt
the tensile strength of rock is far lower than its compressive strength.
to gain an insight into the mechanism of time-dependent behaviors
Specifically, when the mesoscopic element is under uniaxial tensile
such as delayed failure of tunnels. stress, the linear elastic constitutive law with a given specific residual
strength is shown in Fig. 1. No initial damage is incorporated in this
Formulation of Numerical Model model; at the beginning, the stress-strain curve is linear elastic and no
damage occurs, i.e., D ¼ 0. When the maximum tensile strain cri-
Numerical method is currently the most commonly used method in terion is met, the damage of element occurs. In this paper, this kind
the solution of important problems in rock mechanics and engineer- of damage is called tensile damage. According to the constitutive law
ing. The rock failure process analysis (RFPA) code is a realistic of mesoscopic element under uniaxial tension as shown in Fig. 1, the
failure process analysis code on the basis of damage mechanics damage evolution of element D can be expressed as
and statistical theory, which can be applied in the fracture process 8
analysis of rock, concrete, and other brittle materials (Tang and Kou <0 ε < εt0
σtr
1998; Tang et al. 2008; Xu et al. 2006; Zhu and Tang 2002). In this D ¼ 1 εE εt0 ≤ ε < εtu ð4Þ
: 0
code, the material properties of each element are different from one 1 ε ≥ εtu
other and are specified according to Weibull distribution, which
makes it capable to simulate the nonlinear behavior of distortion where σtr = residual uniaxial tensile strength; σtr ¼ λσt0 in which λ =
and failure of rock mass. The modified Mohr-Coulomb criterion residual strength coefficient and σt0 = the uniaxial tensile strength at
with tension cutoff is adopted in this code; thus, characteristics the elastic limit strain (threshold strain) εt0 ; and εtu = ultimate tensile
σcr
εtu ε t0
0
σtr
εc0 ε
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σt0
Fig. 1. Elastic damage constitutive law of element under uniaxial compression and tension
strain of the element, which indicates that the element would be com- the maximum compressive principal strain ε1 of the damaged
pletely damaged when the tensile strain of element attains this ultimate element is used to substitute the uniaxial compressive strain ε in
tensile strain. Eq. (6). Thus, the preceding Eq. (6) can be extended to biaxial
It is assumed that the damage of mesoscopic element in the or triaxial stress states
multiaxial stress field is also isotropic elastic, and therefore the pre-
viously described constitutive law for uniaxial tensile stress can be 0 ε > εc0
D ¼ 1 σcr ε ≤ ε ð8Þ
extended to three-dimensional stress states. Under multiaxial stress εE 0 c0
states, the element still damages in tensile mode when the equiv-
alent strain ε (Lemaitre and Desmorat 2005) of the combination of From the previous derivation of damage variable D, which is
major tensile strain attains the aforementioned threshold strain εt0 . generally called the damage evolution law in damage mechanics,
The constitutive law of element subjected to multiaxial stresses can and Eq. (3), the damaged elastic modulus of element at different
be easily obtained only by substituting the strain ε in Eq. (4) with stress or strain levels can be calculated. The unloaded element
equivalent strain ε. keeps its original elastic modulus and strength before strength
The equivalent strain ε is defined as follows: threshold. That is to say, the element will elastically unload, and
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi no residual deformation occurs in the simulation. It must be em-
ε ¼ hε1 i2 þ hε2 i2 þ hε3 i2 ð5Þ phasized that when D ¼ 1, it can be calculated from Eq. (3) that
the damaged elastic modulus is 0, which would make the system of
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where the equivalent strain ε ¼ hε1 i2 þ hε2 i2 þ hε3 i2 in which equations ill-posed; therefore, in the model a relatively small num-
ε1 , ε2 , and ε3 = three principal strains; < > stands for the positive ber, i.e. 1:0 × 105 , by default is specified to the elastic modulus
part of a scalar; and < x >¼ ðx þ jxjÞ=2. under this condition. In addion, it needs to be emphasized that the
Similarly, the constitutive law is given in Fig. 1 when the damage of elements in tension is preferential to that in shear under
element is under uniaxial compression and damaged in shear mode all circumstances because the tensile strength of rock is far lower
according to the Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The damage variable D than its compressive strength.
can be described as follows: In the absence of heterogeneity, the behavior of the model is
entirely homogenous, i.e., no damage localization occurs, and
0 ε > εc0 the local behavior is replicated at the macroscopic scale. Thus,
D ¼ 1 σcr ε ≤ ε ð6Þ it is necessary to introduce heterogeneity to obtain a macroscopic
εE0 c0
behavior different from those of the elements. To reflect the
where σcr = residual uniaxial compressive strength and is defined material heterogeneity at a mesolevel, the mechanical parameters
as σcr ¼ λσc0 . In the model, it is assumed that σcr =σc0 ¼ σtr =σt0 ¼ including strength and Young’s modulus of the mesoscopic
λ holds true when the mesoscopic element is under uniaxial com- material elements, which are assumed as homogeneous and iso-
pression or tension. tropic, are assigned randomly from the Weibull statistic distribution
When the element is under multiaxial stress state and satisfies (Weibull 1951) as defined in the following statistic probability
the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the shear damage occurs, and the density function:
effect of other principal stress in this model during damage evolu- m
tion process is considered. When the Mohr-Coulomb criterion is m u m1 u
σðuÞ ¼ exp ð9Þ
met, the maximum compressive principal strain εc0 at the peak u0 u0 u0
value of minor principal stress is calculated.
where u = scale parameter of individual element such as strength
1 1 þ sin ϕ or Young’s modulus; the scale parameter u0 is related to the average
εc0 ¼ σc0 þ σ3 μðσ2 þ σ3 Þ ð7Þ
E0 1 sin ϕ of element parameter; and the shape parameter m reflects the degree
of material homogeneity and is defined as homogeneity index.
In addition, it is assumed that the damage evolution is only According to the Weibull distribution and the definition of
related to the maximum compressive principal strain ε1 . Therefore, homogeneity index, a larger m implies more elements with the
X X σ2 ve X σ20
σ∞ ef ¼ 0
ve ¼ ð12Þ
2E 2 E
Fig. 2. Strength degradation law of element propagation in this investigation is just as the method used in
smeared crack model; the crack is smeared over the whole element,
which has the advantage of leaving the mesh topology untouched.
mechanical properties approximated to the mean value and a more No special singular element is adopted. When the stress state of
homogeneous material. How the homogeneity index affects the an element meets the damage threshold, the element will damage
macroscopic mechanical response of numerical specimens has been in tensile or shear mode. Only when the maximum tensile strain of
discussed in previous papers (Tang et al. 2000; Tang et al. 2007), the damaged element attains a given ultimate tensile strain, the
and it is found that the homogeneity index is an important param- damaged element will become totally cracked. One of the main
eter of Weibull distribution to control the macroscopic response of features of this kind of model is that there is no need for a preex-
numerical specimen. isting crack to simulate the crack initiation and propagation. The
As is known, acoustic emission (AE), accompanied by crack numerical model can simulate the initiation, propagation, and coa-
opening, is predominantly related to the release of elastic energy lescence of multiple cracks effectively and easily and this allows
within the bulk of the brittle disordered materials. One method the investigation of the collective behavior of interacting elements
of observing microcracking during brittle material deformation and the emergence of a complex macroscopic behavior.
experiments is by monitoring the AE or microseismic events pro- In recent works (Amitrano and Helmstetter 2006; Pietruszczak
duced during deformation to detect the onset and the evolution of et al. 2004; Shao et al. 2006; Shao et al. 2003), a general method-
stress-induced cracks and analyze the spatial and temporal progres- ology has been proposed for the description of creep in rocks in
sion of microcracks (Knill et al. 1968; Lockner 1993; Ohnaka terms of microstructural evolution. As an approach to study the
1983). Lockner (Lockner 1993; Lockner et al. 1991) has analyzed time-dependent deformation and failure of rock, the constitutive
catalogs of AE events recorded during loading tests in rock in terms model for long-term behavior in the model is logically formulated
of the information they give about the accumulated state of damage on the basis of the short-term model. In the model, the time-
in a material. Combining this measured damage state with a model dependent behavior of rocks is considered as a macroscopic con-
for the weakening behavior of cracked solids shows that reasonable sequence of evolution of microstructure in element scale in FEM
predictions of the mechanical behavior are possible. On the basis of analysis, whereas the evolution of microstructure is a time-
this background knowledge, as an approximation, it is reasonable dependent progressive damage process. On the basis of general
to assume that the AE counts are proportional to the number of understanding of time-dependent behavior of rocks, a material
damaged elements, and the strain energies released by damaged degradation law for the description of fundamental behaviors in
elements are all in the form of acoustic emissions (Tang 1997; Tang heterogeneous rocks in terms of progressive failure on a microscale
et al. 1997). In this model, a single AE event represents a micro- was incorporated into the model. Thus, the constitutive model for
crack forming event to indirectly assess the damage evolution, and long-term behavior is logically formulated by extension of the
the AE energy release is related to the strain energy of element be- short-term model (Shao et al. 2003). In this section, to simulate
fore and after its damage. Therefore, the AE counts are accounted the time-dependent behavior of rocks, strength degradation with
by the number of damaged elements, and the energy releases are time is assumed to be because of the degradation of internal
calculated from the strain energy release of damaged elements. On material properties such as degradation of elastic properties, which
the basis of this assumption, the cumulative AE counts, N, and is attributed to microcracking or microfracturing within granite
cumulative AE energy release can be realistically simulated with (Lin et al. 2009), and a material degradation law, an exponential
the previously discussed numerical model (Tang and Kaiser 1998). relation between time-dependent strength of each element and
The cumulative damage, D, in a given volume of rock because the time to failure of each element, is introduced to model the fail-
of local failures can be defined as the ratio of the volume of failed ure of each element when subjected to a constant stress σi (major
rock, V f , to the total volume, V stress on this element) smaller than its instantaneous strength σ0;i ,
P as shown in Fig. 2 and expressed as Eq. (13):
V f ve · s1 ni 1 X s
D¼ ¼ ¼ n ð10Þ
V N · ve N 1 i
σti ¼ σ∞ þ ðσ0;i σ∞ Þea1 ti ð13Þ
where ve = volume of single element; s = number of calculation
steps; ni = number of failed elements in the ith step. and N = total where σti = time-dependent strength at time t i ; σ∞ = long-term
number of elements in the model. strength at time t approaching infinite (t i → ∞); σ0;i = initial
For an elastic-perfectly brittle material, the energy ef released by instantaneous strength of each element; and a1 = coefficient of
the failure of each element can be calculated from the element peak strength degradation of the element. An element fails either when
strength the time t is equal to its failure time t i or during an avalanche when
the stress σi on this element reaches the rupture criterion σ0;i . The
σ20 damage variable, stress, strength, and failure times of all elements
ef ¼ v ð11Þ
2E e are updated after each failure.
Eq. (14) can be easily implemented into a numerical integration from Emei Mountain in the Sichuan province, China, were respec-
algorithm using the finite-element method, with nodal displace- tively chosen in the study of the creep laws by Li and Xia. Marble is
ments as principal unknowns. By introducing the time-dependent a brittle hard rock with a uniaxial compressive strength of 120 MPa
degradation of material property into the model, the damaged and an ultimate axial strain of 0.23%. As a medium strength rock,
behavior with time can be obtained. In the model, the element red sandstone has a uniaxial compressive strength of approximately
may degrade and damage gradually with time according to the elas- 60 MPa and an ultimate axial strain of 0.67%. The red sandstone
tic damage constitutive relationship. The combined interaction of material was dense and had no macroscopic flaw. The rock samples
time-dependent tensile damage and compressive-shear damage were cut into 50 × 50 × 100 specimens. In addition, the elastic
leads to the macroscopic failure of rock material. According to moduli and the Poisson’s ratio of the marble, 70 GPa and 0.25, and
the general framework described previously, the model can use a red sandstone, 17 GPa and 0.3, were retrieved from published lit-
unified approach for the description of both short- and long-term erature (Wu and Zhang 2003) for the sequent numerical simulation.
behavior of rock material. In the following section, the model is The stress levels applied on the marble and red sandstone were
first verified with published uniaxial creep testing data and then respectively 90 and 44 MPa, both 75% of the uniaxial compressive
creep tests on rock at different stress levels under uniaxial loading strength of the rock. On the basis of the experimental configuration
conditions were carried out. In the end, the time-dependent damage conducted by Li and Xia, a similar numerical model was set up to
and deformation of rock tunnel under various coefficients of lateral perform the uniaxial creep tests at the 75% constant stress level of
uniaxial compressive strength. Before the numerical simulation
was performed, the mechanical parameters, such as the mean
Table 1. Physicomechanical Parameters of Model Specimens uniaxial compressive strength of the elements for the model speci-
Elastic men, were approximately estimated and tested with trial and error
Homogeneity Uniaxial compressive modulus Poisson’s on the basis of the macroscopic mechanical parameters of the rock
Rock index strength (MPa) (GPa) ratio specimen and the statistical distribution relationship between
Marble 2 640 95 0.25 mechanical parameters of elements at a mesoscale and mechanical
Red 2 188 24 0.3
parameters of rock specimen on a macroscale. The physicomechan-
ical parameters of the model specimen are listed in Table 1. The
sandstone
mean uniaxial compressive strength, mean elastic modulus, and
0.6
Experimental curve
Simulated curve
0.5
Red sandstone
0.4
Strain/%
0.3
0.2 Marble
0.1
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
3
Time/×10 s
Axial strain
AE counts
AE counts
-4
3.0x10 -4 60 4.0x10 100
-4
3.0x10
2.0x10 -4 40
-4
2.0x10 50
-4
1.0x10 20 -4
1.0x10
0.0 0 0.0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(a) Normalized time (b) Normalized time
-4
8.0x10 250 1.4x10
-3
500
-4 Axial strain
7.0x10 -3
1.2x10 AE counts
Axial strain 200
-4
400
6.0x10 AE counts
-3
1.0x10
-4
5.0x10
Axial strain
Axial strain
AE counts
150 300
AE counts
-4
8.0x10
-4
4.0x10
-4
-4 100 6.0x10 200
3.0x10
-4
-4 4.0x10
2.0x10
50 100
-4 -4
1.0x10 2.0x10
0.0 0 0.0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3
(c) Normalized time (d) Normalized time
-3
1.5x10 1200
Axial strain
-3
AE counts 1000
1.2x10
800
-4
Axial strain
AE counts
9.0x10
600
-4
6.0x10
400
-4
3.0x10 200
0.0 0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
(e) Normalized time
Fig. 4. Numerically obtained creep and AE curves at: (a) 20; (b) 24; (c) 25; (d) 27; (e) 28 MPa
the Table 2. The short-term uniaxial compressive strength of the the creep rate is constant is sustained for a longer time, and this
rock specimen with the physicomechanical parameters listed in corresponds to the lower stress level. For the higher stress level,
Table 2 is 30 MPa on the basis of the simulations on the model however, the acceleration stage in which the creep rate increases
specimen in uniaxial compression. In addition, for the simulation
leading to specimen localized damage and collapse usually happens
of time-dependent responses, the ratio of long-term strength of
instantaneous strength and the coefficient of degradation of the
element are the same as those of the rock specimen for model 3.5x10
-3
20MPa
validation, viz., 0.8 and 0.05, respectively. The various constant 24MPa
stress levels 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 MPa are respectively applied 3.0x10
-3
25MPa
on the rock specimens on the basis of the simulated short-term 26MPa
27MPa
uniaxial compressive strength, 30 MPa, of the rock specimen. 2.5x10
-3
in Fig. 4(d). The time interval between the beginning of loading and
the occurrence of fracture is called “fracturing time”. For the same 5.0x10
-4
1.5
20MPa
24MPa
25MPa
1.2 26MPa
27MPa
Axial strain (10 )
-3
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Normalized time
Fig. 5. Numerically simulated creep curves Fig. 7. Numerical model for rock tunnel
Ratio of long-term strength to instantaneous strength 0.8 follows that the deformation starts with a high deformation rate that
Coefficient of strength degradation 0.05 decreases continuously until it reaches the stationary creep rate.
Fig. 8. (a) Associated compressive stress fields; (b) tensile stress fields; (c) locations of failed elements at k ¼ 0:67 (P1 ¼ 10 MPa; P2 ¼ 15 MPa)
A numerical model with a simple geometry of 30 × 30 m of a rock coefficient of strength degradation are 0.8 and 0.05, respectively.
tunnel after excavation shown in Fig. 7 is designed to simulate The physical and mechanical parameters of the tunnel model are
Fig. 9. (a) Associated compressive stress fields; (b) tensile stress fields; (c) locations of failed elements at k ¼ 1:0 (P1 ¼ 15 MPa; P2 ¼ 15 MPa)
the tunnel. Under the different coefficients of lateral pressure, ure occurs at the weak zone of the tunnel, as shown in Fig. 9, in
the tunnel exhibits different damage and failure patterns. Creep which the concentrated compressive and tensile stresses and the
Fig. 10. (a) Associated compressive stress fields; (b) tensile stress fields; (c) locations of failed elements at k ¼ 1:3 (P1 ¼ 20 MPa; P2 ¼ 15 MPa)
0.08 mation and damage occurs in the rock mass at the roof and floor of
the tunnel under the coefficient of lateral pressure larger than unity.
0.06 Under the hydrostatic pressure of the coefficient of lateral pressure
equal to unity, creep deformation and damage randomly occurs and
0.04 damage localization forms and failure occurs at the weak zone of
the tunnel. Furthermore, tunnel closure displacements of the tunnel
0.02 wall along the horizontal direction under three coefficients of
lateral pressure are direct proportional to the coefficients of lateral
0 pressure. Tunnel closure will be a maximum in the maximum prin-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (days) cipal stress direction and a minimum perpendicular to it for the
coefficients of lateral pressure differing from unity. Tunnel wall
Fig. 11. Tunnel closure versus time curves under three coefficients of displacements obviously increase at the early stage because of the
lateral pressure disturbance of the state of stress equilibrium; thereafter, the closure
of the tunnel gradually stabilizes, and the time-dependent effects
dominate in the final tunnel closure without additional disturbance
to the rock mass. The simulations show that the rheological model
0.04 is appropriate to investigate the nonlinear complicated failure of
k=1
0.035 k=0.67 inhomogeneous rocks. The previous numerical results on time-
k=1.33 dependent properties, including the three creep regimes and asso-
Tunnel closure rate (day-1)
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Acknowledgments
Time (days)
The joint supports provided by NSFC (Grant No. 41172265 and
Fig. 12. Tunnel closure rate versus time curves under three coefficients
50874020), the National Basic Research Program of China
of lateral pressure
(2007CB209400), the Sino-Swiss Science and Technology