Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction

The existence of karst caves poses a large threat to safe tunnel construction in a karst area. This paper presents a synthetic method to evaluate the collapse risk before subway tunnel construction with Yang-Jian interval tunnel as a case study. The crosshole seismic Computed Tomography (CT) integra...

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Main Authors: Fei Xue, Minjun Cai, Tianzuo Wang, Tongyang Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Advances in Civil Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/8894713
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author Fei Xue
Minjun Cai
Tianzuo Wang
Tongyang Zhao
author_facet Fei Xue
Minjun Cai
Tianzuo Wang
Tongyang Zhao
author_sort Fei Xue
collection DOAJ
description The existence of karst caves poses a large threat to safe tunnel construction in a karst area. This paper presents a synthetic method to evaluate the collapse risk before subway tunnel construction with Yang-Jian interval tunnel as a case study. The crosshole seismic Computed Tomography (CT) integrated with Geological Drilling (Geo-D) was first applied to accurately delineate the karst location and its scale. Then, 483 groups of seismic wave CT images were recorded, and 524 karst cave anomalies were found. The height of karst caves in the study area is 1–20 m and mainly concentrated at approximately 5 m. The vertical distance between the karst cave and the tunnel is mainly within 15 m. According to the detection results, a series of numerical models were built and calculated using FLAC3D to investigate the effect of different sizes and locations of karst caves on the displacement and stability of the surrounding rock in tunnels. Afterwards, based on the simulation results, the disturbance degree evaluation index was established to quantitatively evaluate the risk level of karst caves. The evaluation results indicate that the buried depth of the karst cave greatly affects the disturbance degree. No treatment is required for the deeply buried karst cave that is more than 7 m from the tunnel. When the distance between the cave and the tunnel is less than 7 m, there is a critical size of the cave. Karst caves that are larger than that critical value must be filled with a single slurry or binary slurry before tunnel construction to eliminate the risk of tunnel collapse. This study can be used to provide a more efficient and economical program for metro tunnel construction above a karst cave.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1687-8086
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language English
publishDate 2021-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-b50c4b226fae4d83bd47998af5d7a0c72025-02-03T06:46:46ZengWileyAdvances in Civil Engineering1687-80861687-80942021-01-01202110.1155/2021/88947138894713Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel ConstructionFei Xue0Minjun Cai1Tianzuo Wang2Tongyang Zhao3College of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, ChinaCollege of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, ChinaCollege of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, ChinaCollege of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, ChinaThe existence of karst caves poses a large threat to safe tunnel construction in a karst area. This paper presents a synthetic method to evaluate the collapse risk before subway tunnel construction with Yang-Jian interval tunnel as a case study. The crosshole seismic Computed Tomography (CT) integrated with Geological Drilling (Geo-D) was first applied to accurately delineate the karst location and its scale. Then, 483 groups of seismic wave CT images were recorded, and 524 karst cave anomalies were found. The height of karst caves in the study area is 1–20 m and mainly concentrated at approximately 5 m. The vertical distance between the karst cave and the tunnel is mainly within 15 m. According to the detection results, a series of numerical models were built and calculated using FLAC3D to investigate the effect of different sizes and locations of karst caves on the displacement and stability of the surrounding rock in tunnels. Afterwards, based on the simulation results, the disturbance degree evaluation index was established to quantitatively evaluate the risk level of karst caves. The evaluation results indicate that the buried depth of the karst cave greatly affects the disturbance degree. No treatment is required for the deeply buried karst cave that is more than 7 m from the tunnel. When the distance between the cave and the tunnel is less than 7 m, there is a critical size of the cave. Karst caves that are larger than that critical value must be filled with a single slurry or binary slurry before tunnel construction to eliminate the risk of tunnel collapse. This study can be used to provide a more efficient and economical program for metro tunnel construction above a karst cave.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/8894713
spellingShingle Fei Xue
Minjun Cai
Tianzuo Wang
Tongyang Zhao
Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
Advances in Civil Engineering
title Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
title_full Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
title_fullStr Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
title_full_unstemmed Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
title_short Characteristics of Karst Cave Development in Urban Karst Area and Its Effect on the Stability of Subway Tunnel Construction
title_sort characteristics of karst cave development in urban karst area and its effect on the stability of subway tunnel construction
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/8894713
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AT minjuncai characteristicsofkarstcavedevelopmentinurbankarstareaanditseffectonthestabilityofsubwaytunnelconstruction
AT tianzuowang characteristicsofkarstcavedevelopmentinurbankarstareaanditseffectonthestabilityofsubwaytunnelconstruction
AT tongyangzhao characteristicsofkarstcavedevelopmentinurbankarstareaanditseffectonthestabilityofsubwaytunnelconstruction