ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mater.
Sec. Structural Materials
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Development of Underground Resources - Volume IIView all 11 articles
Study on the support strategy of excavation compensation structures based on double gradient grouting in cross-fault zone tunnels
Provisionally accepted
- China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, Beijing, China
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The conventional Mine Tunneling Method (MTM) and the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) are not sufficient to cope with the excavation and support of deep through-fault fracture zone tunnels with significant asymmetric large deformations. Therefore, new over-reinforcement materials and steel structures are needed to effectively deal with this complex situation. In this study, the coupling technique of double gradient grouting (DGG) and negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) anchor cable structure is adopted. Through mechanical modeling, numerical simulation and on-site monitoring, the support problem of large deformation soft rock tunnels traversing multi-phase fracture and fragmentation zones is studied for the first time. The results show that the support technology of "double gradient grouting + NPR anchors", which combines pre-consolidation with rapid and timely flexible control, has significant mechanical compensation effect on the deformed surrounding rock of tunnels through fault zones. This method effectively controls the tunnel deformation below 278 mm and maintains a constant resistance value of about 350 kN. This study provides a scientific basis for supporting other large deformation soft rock tunnels across multilevel fault fracture zones.
Keywords: double gradient grouting, field test, Large deformation of soft rock, NPR anchor cable, numerical simulation, Physical modeling experiments, tunneling
Received: 20 Dec 2025; Accepted: 21 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yang, Sun and Yue. 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: Jihao Sun
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