Technical Notes
May 3, 2024

Collapse Failure Assessment of Geomaterials behind Steel Structure in Tunnels Using the Chebyshev Inequalities

Publication: ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering
Volume 10, Issue 3

Abstract

The distance of supporting steel structures in tunnels is determined by experience, and, to our best knowledge, there are few precise guidelines in the current design of underground construction. This paper aims to propose an optimum distance of a steel arch structure taking the uncertainties of geomaterials into consideration. The probability of collapse failure of soils behind steel arch structures in tunnels is assessed by using Chebyshev inequalities. First, the critical distance of a steel arch structure is derived based on the limit equilibrium method. Note that the distribution types of shear strength parameters are based on supposed ones is not necessarily true because the distribution types of parameters are uncertain. Chebyshev inequalities can estimate the failure probability in spite of the distribution types of variables being unknown. Then, the upper bound probability of collapse failure of geomaterials behind a steel arch structure in tunnels is estimated based on the Chebyshev inequalities. Finally, the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are validated by the bootstrap method combined with the Akaike information criterion. It can be concluded that the probabilistic assessment of collapse failure of tunnels by Chebyshev inequalities is quick and conservative.

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Data Availability Statement

All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52279100, 52078211) and Research Fund of Science and Technology Progress and Innovation Project of Transport Department of Hunan Province (202009) and Scientific Research Projects of Hunan Education Department (21B0463).

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Published In

Go to ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering
ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering
Volume 10Issue 3September 2024

History

Received: Nov 3, 2023
Accepted: Feb 6, 2024
Published online: May 3, 2024
Published in print: Sep 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Oct 3, 2024

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Xiao-Cheng Huang [email protected]
Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ. of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, PR China (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]
Gui-Lin Wang
Master’s Candidate, School of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ. of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, PR China.
Qiu-Nan Chen
Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ. of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, PR China.
Wei Zhang
Associate Professor, Guangzhou Engineering Co., Ltd., China Railway 19th Bureau Group, No. 2 Huafei St., Huangge Town, Nansha District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 511455, PR China.

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