Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 1

11 Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support

11.1 Problem Statement

Construction of large railroad, subway and road tunnels often involves multiple stages of excavation
and support, particularly if the tunnels are located at shallow depth and/or in weak ground. A typical
example for construction conditions and sequence of a shallow tunnel are illustrated in Figure 11.1
and Figure 11.2.
In this example, the construction sequence is divided into four major excavation stages:
Stage I: right-side excavation;
Stage II: left-side excavation;
Stage III: top-heading excavation; and
Stage IV: bench excavation.
Each excavation stage is accomplished in three construction steps:
Step a: initial excavation;
Step b: installation of rockbolt support; and
Step c: installation of a shotcrete lining.
The three steps occur at different times during the advancement of the tunnel face. Consequently,
the loads acting on the tunnel will be changed at the time the support is installed, as a function of
the tunnel advancement.
The stress and displacement fields in the vicinity of a tunnel construction change in the direction of
the advancing tunnel face, and this is most rigorously analyzed using a three-dimensional program,
such as FLAC 3D (Itasca 2012). However, advancing tunnel problems are often analyzed in two
dimensions by neglecting displacements normal to the tunnel cross-section.
An important issue in the design of supports is the amount of change in the tunnel load that takes
place, due to the tunnel advancement, before the support is installed. If no change is assumed to
occur, the loads acting on the support will be overpredicted. If complete relaxation at the tunnel
periphery is assumed to occur, zero load will develop in the support at the installation step, provided
that the relaxation state is at equilibrium. In reality, some relaxation takes place. However, it is
difficult to quantify relaxation with a two-dimensional program, because this depends on the distance
behind the face at which the support is installed. One way to model the relaxation is to decrease
the elastic moduli of the tunnel core, equilibrate, install the support and remove the core. This
approach is typical of finite element codes. The main problem then becomes estimating how much
to reduce the moduli.

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11 - 2 Example Applications

Figure 11.1 Construction conditions for a multistage tunnel excavation and

support

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Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 3

Figure 11.2 Construction sequence for a multistage tunnel excavation and

support

An alternative approach to model the relaxation is based on the relation of the closure of the
unsupported tunnel to the distance to the face. Panet (1979) published such an expression. (Also
see Section 8.) Tunnel closure can be related to traction forces acting on the tunnel periphery via
a ground reaction curve. Thus, the tunnel relaxation as a function of the distance to the face can
be specified in terms of tractions defined by a ground reaction curve, and an expression relating
closure to distance to the face.
In order to simulate the relaxation, tractions are first applied to the tunnel boundary to provide
an equilibrium condition at zero relaxation; then the tractions are gradually decreased to a value
corresponding to a tunnel closure value that is related to a specified distance to the face. The
support is then installed at this relaxation state. In this example, the rockbolt support is installed at
an excavation stage corresponding to 50% relaxation of the tunnel load, and the shotcrete is installed
at a stage corresponding to 75% relaxation, as illustrated in Figure 11.1.

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11 - 4 Example Applications

11.2 Modeling Procedure

11.2.1 Model Setup

FLAC is well-suited to model sequential excavation and construction problems. In this example, the
four excavation stages and three construction steps within each stage are simulated as 12 sequential
solutions. A procedure that demonstrates the process to develop a ground reaction curve for this
model is also included. The project file, “mstunnel.prj”, contains all of the command data for each
solution stage in this example.
The FLAC mesh is defined with the grid distorted to align with the boundaries of the four segments
of the tunnel excavation. The Build / Generate / Geometry Builder tool is used to create the tunnel geometry
with a fine mesh in the vicinity of the tunnel and a radially graded mesh extending to the model
boundaries. The tunnel stage boundaries are defined in an imported geometry file, “tunnel.dxf”.
This file can be directly obtained from a CAD drawing or drawn by hand in the Sketch tool. The
FLAC grid for this example is shown in Figure 11.3. A close-up view of the four excavation stages
is shown in Figure 11.4.
The rock behavior is represented by the Mohr-Coulomb model assigned the properties listed in
Figure 11.1. The rockbolts are modeled using rockbolt elements, and the shotcrete is simulated
with liner elements. Note that the structural element logic is a plane-stress formulation, so the value
specified for the Young’s modulus, E, is divided by (1 − ν 2 ) to correspond to the plane-strain model
(see Section 1.2.2 in Structural Elements).
The model is brought to an initial force-equilibrium state under gravitational loading, with the top
boundary of the mesh representing the ground surface. The initial stage is identified as Step 0 in
Figure 11.1.

FLAC Version 8.0

Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 5

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

LEGEND 1.000

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 0
-5.556E+01 <x< 5.556E+01
-8.556E+01 <y< 2.556E+01 -1.000

Grid plot

0 2E 1

-3.000

-5.000

-7.000

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-4.000 -2.000 0.000 2.000 4.000
(*10^1)

Figure 11.3 FLAC grid for a multistage tunnel construction

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-1.750

LEGEND

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step 0 -2.250
-1.510E+01 <x< 1.640E+01
-4.587E+01 <y< -1.437E+01

User-defined Groups
mstunnel:rock -2.750
’mstunnel:left side’
mstunnel:bench
’mstunnel:top heading’
’mstunnel:right side’
Grid plot -3.250

0 5E 0

-3.750

-4.250

Itasca Consulting Group,INC

Minneapolis, MN
-1.250 -0.750 -0.250 0.250 0.750 1.250
(*10^1)

Figure 11.4 Close-up of excavation stage groups for multistage tunnel con-
struction

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11 - 6 Example Applications

11.2.2 Ground Reaction Curve

Before conducting the sequential excavation/support analysis, unsupported tunnel calculations are
performed in order to develop ground reaction curves for this model. This procedure is demonstrated
for the excavation of the entire tunnel in one stage. Separate ground reaction curves can also be
developed for each tunnel segment.
The ground reaction curve is developed by measuring the force on the tunnel boundary at zero relax-
ation and applying an incrementally decreasing amount of this force as a traction while measuring
the corresponding tunnel closure. The command APPLY relax performs this relaxation procedure
automatically.
The APPLY relax command is applied to gridpoints along the entire tunnel boundary in this example.
When the command is executed, x- and y-reaction forces at these gridpoints are recovered and then
applied as tractions (with an opposite sign) at the same gridpoints. The nsteps keyword then defines
the number of intervals over which the tractions are reduced. In this example, nsteps = 10, i.e.,
the tractions are reduced in 10% increments from the zero relaxation state. The keyword rstop sets
the final reduced value of the traction. Tractions are defined as dimensionless relaxation factors
between 1.0 and 0.0. For this example, the ending relaxation factor rstop is set to 0.2. If a lower
value is specified, the tunnel collapses.
Tunnel closure is monitored as a history. The FISH function closure calculates the vertical
closure of the tunnel. The closure is then recorded as grhist = 1 in the APPLY relax command. The
ground reaction curve, which plots the reduction in relaxation factor versus the closure, is written
to a table specified by grtable = 1 in the APPLY relax command. Figure 11.5 displays the result
for load relaxation of the entire tunnel boundary from a relaxation factor of 1.0 to 0.2. This is the
ground reaction curve.
By also relating the tunnel closure to the distance to the tunnel face (e.g., see Figure 8.6 in Section 8),
relaxation factors can be selected to correspond to selected distances to the tunnel face.
For this multistage tunnel excavation/construction example, we do not relate the relaxation factors
to specific distances to the tunnel face. We arbitrarily choose a relaxation factor of 0.5 (50%
relaxation) to define the tunnel loading state at which the rockbolt support is installed. The factor
is then reduced to 0.25 (75% relaxation) to develop loads in the rockbolts. The relaxation factor
of 0.25 corresponds to the state at which the shotcrete is installed, and then complete relaxation
(100% relaxation) is allowed to develop loads in the shotcrete.

FLAC Version 8.0

Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 7

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support

FLAC (Version 8.00)

LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06 1.000

step 10388
0.900
ground reaction curve
relax factor vs vert. closure
0.800

0.700

0.600

0.500

0.400

0.300

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

-03
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Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Figure 11.5 Ground reaction curve: relaxation factor versus vertical closure

11.2.3 Construction Simulation

The construction steps of the excavation/support analysis follow the same sequence for each exca-
vation stage. First, the excavation segment is nulled and the APPLY relax command is applied over
that segment boundary to reduce the tractions in 20% increments (nsteps = 5) until the tractions
are 50% of their starting value (rstop = 0.5). The model is brought to force equilibrium at 50%
relaxation. This is Step a, as shown in Figure 11.1.
At this state, the rockbolt elements are added, representing the rockbolt support. The locations
of the rockbolts are defined by a sketch of the rockbolt pattern. This geometry is imported into
FLAC from the Build / Sketch tool as the file “rockbolts.dxf”. (The geometry can be imported as a
CAD drawing or drawn in the Sketch tool.) Using the sketch as a background image, the rockbolts
are located around the boundary of each excavation, as shown in Figure 11.1. Each rockbolt is
composed of five segments, which is sufficient to locate a rockbolt node within every zone along
the bolt length.
The tunnel tractions around the excavation are now reduced again using APPLY relax. The relaxation
increment, nsteps = 5 and the end factor rstop = 0.5. This results in the tractions relaxing an
additional 50%. The model is then brought to force equilibrium at 75% relaxation. This is Step b
in Figure 11.1.

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11 - 8 Example Applications

At this state, the liner elements are added to represent installation of the shotcrete lining. The tunnel
tractions are reduced by using APPLY relax with nsteps = 5 and rstop = 0.0. The tractions are now
relaxed 100% and the model is brought to equilibrium.
Loads that develop in the rockbolts result from tunnel-load relaxation from 50% to zero, and the
loads that develop in the shotcrete result from relaxation from 25% to zero.
By applying the relaxation in a five-step reduction (nsteps = 5), the effects of transient waves
are minimized, and a gradual excavation of the tunnel is simulated. This is demonstrated by
Figure 11.6, which displays vertical stress histories at the springline of the tunnel. The histories
show gradual changes in the stresses; if the relaxation loads were applied suddenly (i.e., in one step),
sudden changes would be observed in these histories, and a different final state could result. (See
Section 3.10.3 in the User’s Guide for further discussion on path-dependency effects of loading.)

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support

FLAC (Version 8.00)

06
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LEGEND

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step 254190

HISTORY PLOT -0.850

Y-axis :
1 Ave. SYY ( 58, 38)
-0.900
2 Ave. SYY ( 19, 37)
X-axis :
Number of steps -0.950

-1.000

-1.050

-1.100

5 10 15 20 25

04
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Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Figure 11.6 Vertical stress histories at the springline

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Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 9

11.3 Results

Typical results for this analysis are shown in Figures 11.7, 11.9, 11.10 and 11.11. The settlement
profile of the ground surface at the end of the analysis is shown in Figure 11.7. The profile is
created with FISH function settle; y-displacements at the gridpoints along the top of the model
are stored in table 2.
The axial forces in the rockbolts at the end of each excavation stage are shown in Figure 11.9, and
the axial forces in the shotcrete are shown in Figure 11.10. Note that the sense of the axial force
plot depends on the order in which the structural elements are created. The sense can be changed
by assigning a maximum value with opposite sign following the max keyword when issuing the
command PLOT structure axial. Figure 11.8 shows the Plot Item Switches dialog, in which the
maximum value is set to −800000.0 to change the sense of the liner axial force plot.

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support

FLAC (Version 8.00)

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-0.200
step 254190

settlement
vert. displ. vs dist. -0.400

-0.600

-0.800

-1.000

-1.200

-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA

Figure 11.7 Final settlement profile

FLAC Version 8.0

11 - 10 Example Applications

Figure 11.8 Plot Item Switches dialog; use the Maximum

switch to change
the plot sense

FLAC Version 8.0

Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 11

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-2.000
LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 55881
-1.298E+01 <x< 1.298E+01
-4.298E+01 <y< -1.702E+01 -2.500

Rockbolt Plot
Axial Force on
Structure Max. Value
# 1 (Rockb) -1.615E+04
# 2 (Rockb) -4.879E+04 -3.000

# 3 (Rockb) -7.257E+04
# 4 (Rockb) -8.105E+04
# 5 (Rockb) -7.681E+04
# 6 (Rockb) -7.937E+04
# 7 (Rockb) -6.099E+04
# 8 (Rockb) -3.963E+04 -3.500

# 9 (Rockb) -1.484E+04
Marked Gridpoints

-4.000

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000
(*10^1)

(a) right-side excavation

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-2.000
LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 114535
-1.298E+01 <x< 1.298E+01
-4.298E+01 <y< -1.702E+01 -2.500

Rockbolt Plot
Axial Force on
Structure Max. Value
# 1 (Rockb) -1.465E+04
# 2 (Rockb) -4.940E+04 -3.000

# 3 (Rockb) -7.429E+04
# 4 (Rockb) -8.062E+04
# 5 (Rockb) -7.490E+04
# 6 (Rockb) -7.803E+04
# 7 (Rockb) -5.951E+04
# 8 (Rockb) -3.710E+04 -3.500

# 9 (Rockb) 9.513E+03
#11 (Rockb) -1.835E+04
#12 (Rockb) -5.753E+04
#13 (Rockb) -8.529E+04
#14 (Rockb) -9.029E+04
#15 (Rockb) -8.798E+04 -4.000

#16 (Rockb) -8.709E+04

#17 (Rockb) -6.962E+04
Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000
(*10^1)

(b) left-side excavation

FLAC Version 8.0

11 - 12 Example Applications

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-2.000
LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 232653
-1.298E+01 <x< 1.298E+01
-4.298E+01 <y< -1.702E+01 -2.500

Rockbolt Plot
Axial Force on
Structure Max. Value
# 1 (Rockb) -2.151E+05
# 2 (Rockb) -1.505E+05 -3.000

# 3 (Rockb) -1.533E+05
# 4 (Rockb) -9.614E+04
# 5 (Rockb) -6.661E+04
# 6 (Rockb) -7.084E+04
# 7 (Rockb) -7.250E+04
# 8 (Rockb) -8.958E+04 -3.500

# 9 (Rockb) -5.394E+04
#11 (Rockb) -1.468E+05
#12 (Rockb) -1.478E+05
#13 (Rockb) -1.217E+05
#14 (Rockb) -8.849E+04
#15 (Rockb) -7.572E+04 -4.000

#16 (Rockb) -7.978E+04

#17 (Rockb) -8.090E+04
Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000
(*10^1)

(c) top-heading excavation

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-2.000
LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 254190
-1.298E+01 <x< 1.298E+01
-4.298E+01 <y< -1.702E+01 -2.500

Rockbolt Plot
Axial Force on
Structure Max. Value
# 1 (Rockb) -2.159E+05
# 2 (Rockb) -1.520E+05 -3.000

# 3 (Rockb) -1.538E+05
# 4 (Rockb) -9.934E+04
# 5 (Rockb) -7.557E+04
# 6 (Rockb) -1.073E+05
# 7 (Rockb) -1.121E+05
# 8 (Rockb) -1.065E+05 -3.500

# 9 (Rockb) -1.804E+05
#11 (Rockb) -1.479E+05
#12 (Rockb) -1.482E+05
#13 (Rockb) -1.222E+05
#14 (Rockb) -9.097E+04
#15 (Rockb) -8.276E+04 -4.000

#16 (Rockb) -1.108E+05

#17 (Rockb) -1.134E+05
Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000
(*10^1)

(d) bench excavation

Figure 11.9 Axial forces in rockbolts at 100% relaxation for each excavation
stage

FLAC Version 8.0

Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 13

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-1.750

LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 55881 -2.250
-1.486E+01 <x< 1.575E+01
-4.530E+01 <y< -1.470E+01

Liner Plot
Axial Force on -2.750
Structure Max. Value
#10 (Liner) 6.034E+05
Marked Gridpoints

-3.250

-3.750

-4.250

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000 1.500
(*10^1)

(a) right-side excavation

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-1.750

LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 114535 -2.250
-1.486E+01 <x< 1.575E+01
-4.530E+01 <y< -1.470E+01

Liner Plot
Axial Force on -2.750
Structure Max. Value
#10 (Liner) 1.057E+06
#20 (Liner) 6.899E+05
Marked Gridpoints
-3.250

-3.750

-4.250

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000 1.500
(*10^1)

(b) left-side excavation

FLAC Version 8.0

11 - 14 Example Applications

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-1.750

LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 232653 -2.250
-1.486E+01 <x< 1.575E+01
-4.530E+01 <y< -1.470E+01

Liner Plot
Axial Force on -2.750
Structure Max. Value
#10 (Liner) 1.216E+06
Marked Gridpoints

-3.250

-3.750

-4.250

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000 1.500
(*10^1)

(c) top-heading excavation

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support (*10^1)

FLAC (Version 8.00)

-1.750

LEGEND

29-Jun-15 15:06
step 254190 -2.250
-1.486E+01 <x< 1.575E+01
-4.530E+01 <y< -1.470E+01

Liner Plot
Axial Force on -2.750
Structure Max. Value
#10 (Liner) 1.137E+06
Marked Gridpoints

-3.250

-3.750

-4.250

Itasca Consulting Group, INC.

Minneapolis, MN, USA
-1.000 -0.500 0.000 0.500 1.000 1.500
(*10^1)

(d) bench excavation

Figure 11.10 Axial forces in shotcrete at 100% relaxation for each excavation
stage

FLAC Version 8.0

Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support 11 - 15

Figure 11.11 plots a moment-thrust diagram for the shotcrete liner at 100% relaxation at the last
excavation stage. The plot indicates that all segments along the liner have a factor of safety greater
than 1.4.

JOB TITLE : Multistage Tunnel Excavation and Support

FLAC (Version 8.00)

06
(10 )
LEGEND

2-Jul-15 11:01 3.000

step 254190
-1.486E+01 <x< 1.575E+01
-4.530E+01 <y< -1.470E+01 2.500

moment thrust diagram

Safety Factors 2.000
1.0
1.2 1.500
1.4

1.000

0.500

0.000

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

04
(10 )
Itasca Consulting Group, INC.
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Figure 11.11 Moment-thrust diagram (tensile yield strength = 1 MPa, com-

pressive yield strength = 10 MPa) for shotcrete liner at 100%
relaxation at the last excavation stage

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11 - 16 Example Applications

11.4 References

Itasca Consulting Group, Inc. FLAC 3D (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions),
Version 5.0. Minneapolis: ICG (2012).
Panet, M. “Time-Dependent Deformations in Underground Works,” in Proceedings of the 4th
ISRM Congress (Montreux), Vol. 3, pp. 279-289. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema and the Swiss
Society for Soil and Rock Mechanics (1979).

FLAC Version 8.0