A Study on the Safety Assessment Technique of a Tunnel Using Critical Stain Concept

An assesment technique for the quantitative evaluation of tunnel safety during tunnel excavation was newly proposed in this study using displacement measurements. First of all, field measurement guidelines used at tunnel construction sites in Korea and other countries were investigated. It was found out that the criteria of the guidelines were not clear and varied depending on the construction sites. The practical use of field measurement data for the evaluation of tunnel safety was very limited due to uncertainties of the guidelines related to the interpretation of measured data during the excavation. Critical strain concept is introduced in this study for the assesment of tunnel safety during the tunnel excavation. Moreover, the characteristics of tunnel displacements caused by the tunnel excavation were investigated in detail in order to investigate the practical application of the critical strain concept. The total tunnel displacements can be subdivided into three parts: displacements occurring ahead of tunnel face, displacements occurring prior to measurements, and displacements occurring after the installation of instruments. The characteristic of each portion of displacements is analysed in this study. Finally, a general method on the use of the displacement measurement data for the critical strain concept was suggested in the concrete manner, considering the field measurement practice in Korea.