Support Measures to Prevent the Deformation and Failure of a Carbonaceous Mudstone Tunnel

A carbonaceous mudstone tunnel is a type of soft rock tunnel. There is little research on the prevention and control measures for the deformation and failure of carbonaceous mudstone tunnels. In this article, we investigated the construction of the Qiguding carbonaceous mudstone tunnel in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China. We monitored and analyzed the deformation and stress characteristics of a section under the original support scheme. The monitoring data showed that this section had large peripheral convergence, vault subsidence, steel arch strain, and concrete strain. The deformations exhibited significant differences in the horizontal and vertical directions, eventually resulting in concrete cracking, steel arch bulging, and distortion in the section. The analysis showed that the primary mechanisms for the failure were the softening characteristics of the carbonaceous mudstone, the plastic rheology, and the shear slip of the rock stratum. Based on a comparative analysis and numerical simulation, we proposed a new support measure called the longitudinal rigid enlarged foundation that consists of a steel arch longitudinal connection system and a locking foot anchor pipe system. Several comparative tests were performed at the tunnel site. The results demonstrated the excellent performance and reliability of the proposed support scheme for the deformation control of the carbonaceous mudstone, providing a reference for similar projects.