Evaluation of rockburst potential in second part of Karaj-Tehran water conveyance tunnel

One of the geotechnical hazards in the tunnels under high overburden and high in situ stresses is the phenomenon of rock burst. Rock burst is a typical geologic phenomenon caused by excavation in rock masses. In this phenomenon, because of stress released and explosion in rock masses, they are broken as large and small pieces and are distributed, so that leads to damage of peoples or equipments. Therefore, familiar with this phenomenon and its mechanism of occurrence, is need to analyze this issue. The second part of water supply Karaj-Tehran tunnel with a length of 14 km and about 4.5 m diameter is located in Tehran province. Rock burst analysis has been carried out in the tunnel from kilometer 6 to 9.5 that is critical section because of high overburden (up to 800 m) and presence of faults and crushed zones. In this paper, for predicting rock burst in the critical section of second part of Karaj-Tehran tunnel, four criteria including, Strain energy, Rock brittleness, Seismic energy and Tangential stress criterion are used. Analysis results show that units with high overburden have high possibility of rock burst.

Keywords:

Geotechnical Hazards , Tunnel , Rockburst , Predict