Energy Release Resulting from Sudden Excavation Shape Changes during Two-sided Strainbursts

Abstract When tunnels in underground hard rock mines experience strainbursts, the effective shape of the tunnel suddenly changes as part of the rock fails, notches form and the broken rock bulks inside the strainburst volume. For circular tunnels, this dynamic rupture and bulking process causes a shape change with associated displacements and velocities in the surrounding elastic rockmass and at the excavation walls. This process can be approximated for circular tunnel bursting in elastic rock by a shape change from circular to elliptical and Maugi’s solution [1] can be adapted to estimate related displacements and average ground velocities. If these velocities are imposed on a volume of rock or shotcrete with a given mass, the mass can be ejected, and the corresponding kinetic energy can be estimated. When combined with the sudden bulking of the fractured rock, displacements and velocities are magnified between the elliptical shape and the pre-burst (circular) shape of the tunnel. This study focuses on the effect of the combined excavation response with elastic and bulking deformations to assess frequently observed excavation damage processes involving ‘shotcrete rain’ and heave of floor slabs caused by these shape changes. An analytical solution is presented for circular tunnels to estimate the elastic and bulking displacements, the resulting velocities, and energy demands.