Practices on rockburst prevention and control in headrace tunnels of Jinping II hydropower station

The TBM tunneling at the Jinping II hydropower station in Southwest China has received extensive concerns around the world because of its large engineering scale and the high rockburst risks faced in the tunnel advancement. The associated energy changes of rockbursts and control method for safe TBM tunneling are to be further investigated. A movable microseismic (MS) monitoring system was established to capture the MS events and rockbursts when the TBM excavated the headrace tunnel #1 at the Jinping II hydropower station. The spatial and temporal patterns of the energy changes in the tunnel rock masses were studied. Meanwhile, the evolution of a rockburst encountered in front of the TBM excavation face was revealed, and the performance of the top pilot tunnel method on the reduction of the rockburst risks in the headrace tunnel #1 was evaluated based on the energy changes of the surrounding rock masses. It can be concluded that energy accumulation and energy release firstly occurred in the surrounding rock masses at the southern end of the top pilot tunnel section of the headrace tunnel #1. Then, energy transference of the rock masses took place from the southern end to northwest of the top pilot tunnel giving rise to the occurrence of a moderate rockburst about 30 m in front of the tunnel. However, no rockbursts appeared when the TBM excavated through the top pilot tunnel section of the headrace tunnel #1. Therefore, the top pilot tunnel method really works in reducing the risks of rockbursts during the TBM tunneling in deep tunnels.

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The Prevention and Control Mechanism of Rockburst Hazards and Its Application in the Construction of a Deeply Buried Tunnel

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app9173629 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (17) ◽

pp. 3629 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Heng Zhang ◽

Yimo Zhu ◽

Liang Chen ◽

Weidong Hu ◽

Shougen Chen

Keyword(s):

Prevention And Control ◽

High Stress ◽

Field Application ◽

Underground Engineering ◽

Global Challenge ◽

High Geostress ◽

Jinping Ii Hydropower Station ◽

Active Release ◽

Water Swelling ◽

And Control

Rockburst hazards induced by high geostress are particularly prominent during the construction of underground engineering. Prevention and control of rockburst is still a global challenge in the field of geotechnical engineering, which is of great significance. Based on the tunnel group of the Jinping II hydropower station of China, this paper analyzed the mechanical principle of support in the process of construction, and discussed in detail the active release and passive support by numerical simulation and field application. The results show that as two active measures, stress relieve holes and advanced stress relief blasting can release the energy of the microseismic source and transfer the high stress to the deeper surrounding rock, make the surface rock wall with a relatively low stress act as a protective barrier. Their stress release rate is about 12% and 33% in this project, respectively. In term of passive measure, the combined rapid support, which is mainly composed of water swelling anchor and nano-admixture shotcrete, is also an effective way to prevent and control the rockburst under high geostress.

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