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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Geohazards and Georisks

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1654209

Mechanical effect and load transfer mechanism of soft rock tunnel composite lining considering creep effect

Provisionally accepted
Jianbo  XuJianbo Xu1Juntao  FangJuntao Fang2Ping  JiangPing Jiang1Aiguo  HanAiguo Han1Cheng  JiangCheng Jiang1Qinghui  SunQinghui Sun1Jianjun  SongJianjun Song1Hang  LinHang Lin1Ruowei  RenRuowei Ren1Changqun  ZuoChangqun Zuo2*
  • 1China First Metallurgical Group Co Ltd, Wuhan, China
  • 2China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Taking the Xianfeng Tunnel in Luzhai county, Guangxi province as the engineering background, this study aims to investigate the influence of different construction parameters on the stress and deformation of lining structures under creep effects, and also reveal the load-sharing ratios of composite lining structures under varying initial support stiffness conditions and the temporal evolution patterns and transfer mechanisms of surrounding rock pressure by using field monitoring and numerical simulation methods.The findings of this research are as follows: (1) Both monitoring data and simulation analyses demonstrate that the Cvisc constitutive model effectively describes the creep behavior of the surrounding rock in the engineering area; (2) Construction parameters have a significant impact on the stress of the primary lining, the earlier application of the secondary lining leading to greater structural stress; (3) With the increase of the elastic modulus of the primary lining, the load-sharing ratio of the secondary lining decreases, while the ultimate pressure borne by the secondary lining remains relatively stable; (4) Considering the time-dependent effects of creep behavior, when the secondary support is installed before the yield phase of initial structure, the pressure on each part of the lining structure is distributed according to the stiffness of each structure; subsequently, as the initial support enters the yield phase, the load it bears transferred to the secondary lining structure. These research findings can provide theoretical guidance for the design of support structures and construction parameters in soft rock tunnels.

Keywords: Soft rock tunnel, Creep effect, Composite lining structure, Surrounding rock, pressure load sharing ratio of lining

Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Fang, Jiang, Han, Jiang, Sun, Song, Lin, Ren and Zuo. 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: Changqun Zuo, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

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