ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Earth and Planetary Materials
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1605205
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Structure, Characterization, and Failure Mechanisms of Geomaterials: Theoretical, Experimental, and Numerical ApproachesView all 11 articles
Deformation of surrounding rock in a shallow large-section tunnel passing through soft-plastic loess layer
Provisionally accepted
- 1The 4th Engineering Company of China Railway 12th Bureau Group Ltd., Co., Xi'an, China
- 2Hebei Jiaotong Vocational and Technical College, Shijiazhuang, China
- 3Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
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In view of the problem of the plastic state of the surrounding rock of loess high-speed railway tunnels changing from hard plastic to soft-plastic, even in a flow-plastic state with increasing moisture content, and appearing collapse and large deformation of support structure, it is put forward to use advanced pipe-roof support. Numerical simulation and site monitoring and measurement are adopted to analyze the tunnel surrounding rock deformation characteristics when different soft-plastic layer thicknesses (1 m, 3 m, 5 m) distributing on tunnel arc, sidewall and invert, and the control effect of advanced pipe-roof support to tunnel construction deformation. Results show: ① The spatial distribution of soft-plastic loess layer has a much greater impact on deformation than its thickness. Vertical and horizontal displacements of the tunnel surrounding rock appear three stages: rapid deformation during the initial stage of excavation, continuous slow deformation and tending towards stable convergence deformation. ② Compared to the situation of no pipe -roof, implement of advance pipe-roof support can significantly improve the control effect of vertical and horizontal displacements of the tunnel surrounding rock. ③ The tunnel surrounding rock deformation characteristics show: it is crucial to control the deformation of surrounding rock from the initial excavation stage to the primary support and sealing before forming a ring. The use of advanced pipe-roof support has a significant effect on controlling deformation during the construction of soft-plastic loess high-speed railway tunnels.
Keywords: Soft-plastic loess, Loess tunnel, deformation, Surrounding rock, Pipe roof, support
Received: 03 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Liu, Liu, Zhang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liu Liu, Hebei Jiaotong Vocational and Technical College, Shijiazhuang, China
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