In this framework, for safety assessment of long-term deep excavated tunnel, the linear viscoelastic

Burger model for rocks is chosen.

For a number of practical applications where the analyses involve the use of numerical procedures such
as a F.E analysis, the performance functions may not be available in explicit form which makes it difficult
to use FORM/SORM directly. In these cases, the response surface method can be used to approximate
the implicit performance functions (Lü and Low, 2011). RSM is a bridge between spreadsheet-based
Geotechnical FORM analysis and stand-alone numerical packages (Low, 2014). For building the explicit
performance function for complicating Geotechnical problem, the RSM was developed.