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Z.Y. Yang
Department of Civil Engineering, Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan
J.Q. Hsiao
Hsiao-Jong-Quan Geotechnical Consultant, Tauyuan, Taiwan
H.M. Chen
Kung-Sing Engineering Corporation, Taipei, Taiwan
ABSTRACT: A 5 m shallow excavation in Hsinchuang fault zone in Taiwan causes a serious slope movement.
Numerous tensile cracks indicating slope instability appear at the upper ground surface to 80 m far away from
the open cut. A trial excavation in 3 m depth is carried out in field to investigate the lateral displacement behavior
of the high-stressed material in fault zone. To monitor the free displacement of the cut, no support is applied and
an inclinometer is pre-installed close to the wall of excavation. After excavating, a surface tension-crack opening
5 cm in width is rapidly developed in 2 hours. Finally, the squeezing wall of excavation failed in toppling by the
tension crack. This field observation indicates that the faulted material is in a highly stressed condition and is
quickly squeezing by the released stress.
1 INTRODUCTION
671
0.5
fault breccias
0.4
24
inclinometer (at 1 m depth)
Lateral Displacement (mm)
16
0
2nd Excavating
672
Figure 7. Monitoring inclinometer is pre-setup close to the
trial vertical open cut.
4 TRIAL EXCAVATION
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Figure 9. Lateral displacement rate at different depth of
faulted material by stress released. Figure 10. A safe excavation in normally-consolidated
clayey soils in Hsinchu of northern Taiwan.
in sidewall are very rough shown in Figure 8(c). This
demonstrates the mechanism of cracking is fractured residual stress. The observation of this research indi-
in tension. The lateral movement of excavation wall is cates that the faulted material in this MRT mainte-
mainly contributed by the tension-crack opening and nance site displays the property of a squeezing ground.
wall squeezing.
Figure 9 shows the rate of lateral displacement at 5.2 Critical tension crack
different depth. It is found that the lateral displace- A normally-consolidated formation of cohesive soil in
ment is mobilized from 10 minutes after complete northern Taiwan being excavated deep into about 3 m
cutting. Then, the extension rate of tension cracking is shown in Figure 10. This figure demonstrates that
is kept constant. Finally, the rate decreases due to the the excavation is very safe. Actually, the excavation
separation of this rock block where the inclinometer is smaller than its critical excavation depth in a cohe-
is setup. The rate of displacement at 1.5 m depth is sive soil. Therefore, the critical depth of excavation
faster than that at 2.5 m depth. The rate of tensile-crack to form a tension crack in this trial excavation is more
opening is about 17.5 mm per hour (i.e. 0.3 mm/min) at than 3 m. However, a visible tension crack and remark-
the top surface for this fault zone. In the other hand, the able displacement appeared rapidly. The result shows
rate of tension crack opening at 2.5 m depth is 4.2 mm that the slope movement is primarily caused by pro-
per hour (i.e. 0.07 mm/min). Therefore, the cracking gressively stress releasing. The displacement rate of
rate is about 4 times per meter in depth direction. The faulted material is much faster as we know.
tension crack rapidly propagates to 1 m in depth within As a result of stress-released, additional earth pres-
10 minutes. sure released from the in-situ stress will applied to
the man-made supporting system. To ensure the safe
of excavating within fault zones, this additional
5 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS earth pressure must be taken into consideration. The
approach of small-region excavating in turns to reduce
5.1 Creep or squeezing the rate of released-stress is preferential. In practice, a
The time-dependent behavior of lateral displacement quick supporting scheme or pre-cast retaining system
of fault material actually is linear during excavating. is suggested. However, the quantity of released stress
This time-dependent displacement behavior is very or displacement rate needs greater study.
different to the typical creep behavior which has the
primary, secondary and tertiary creep stages. It is also REFERENCES
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