Numerical Modeling of Ground Response Curves for Rock Tunnels Using Mohr-coulomb and Hoek-Brown Failure Criteria

Ground response curves are modeled for the axi-symmetric tunnel problems using analytical and finite difference methods. A detailed review of the solutions obtained by a number of authors for this problem is given. A new stepwise solution for solving the axi-symmetric tunnel problem by using the Mohr-Coulomb criteria is developed here. Finally four solutions are selected of which two are based on Mohr-Coulomb criteria and the other two based on Hoek-Brown criteria ( i.e. for each criteria one solution is a closed form solution and the other one is a stepwise solution). At the end the closed form and stepwise solutions based on both Mohr- Coulomb and Hoek-Brown failure criteria are numerically solved and programmed in a single computer code. Some illustrative example problems are solved and the corresponding ground response curves are obtained which show the validity of the stepwise Mohr-Coulomb solution.

Keywords:

Ground response curves , Mohr-Coulomb criteria , Hoek-Brown criteria , Axi-symmetric tunnel problems , finite difference method