Supporting Structure of Steel Corrugated Plate-Mold Bag Concrete and Its Application in a Circular Shaft
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments on the paper submitted to Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417):
Title: Supporting structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete and its application in a circular shaft
Manuscript ID: applsci-2649502
General Comments
The paper presents a comprehensive investigation on the behavior of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete and its application in a circular shaft. The authors addressed the problem by analytical calculations, 3D and 2D numerical models, and an exciting field test. In summary, the methods and results support all the conclusions brought by the study. Besides that, the paper also fulfills the shortcomings that frequently arise with short concrete applications. Nevertheless, I identified some minor aspects that should be addressed by the authors to improve the clarity of the manuscript.
Based on this, my final recommendation is to accept with minor revisions required.
Below, I present some suggestions, questions and recommendations that the authors should carefully address in the revised paper.
Title: The Title summarizes well the content of the paper.
Abstract: In general, the Abstract is well structured since it provides the motivation of the proposed study, purpose, methods, main results, and conclusions of the paper. However, I identified some aspects that should be improved in the Abstract, detailed below. Besides, in general, the Abstract should undergo careful editorial language review. I identified many places where the wrong preposition was used or some article was missing. In many places, it is also required to fix the agreement.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
General: consider splitting the purpose and the motivation into two sentences in the Abstract.
In the sentence: “To cater for the problems of poor working”. Consider using “To cater to the problems of poor working..”
In the sentence: “on the thin walled cylinder”. Please, consider using “on the thin-walled cylinder”.
In the sentence “such as tunnel”. The authors should correct to “such as tunnels”.
Section 1: Introduction
General: The authors present the main ideas required in the Introduction adequately: (i) context, (ii) motivation of the proposed research, (iv) purpose of the paper, and (v) methods applied. I suggest mainly undergoing a careful English review on this Topic and improving the following aspects below.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
General: In many places, I identified minor grammatical errors related to "subject-verb agreement", "correct article usage before the subject" and "agreement mistake". I suggest undergoing a careful English review of the whole manuscript.
Question: steel corrugated plate may decrease the high rebound rate of short concrete? This information could be discussed in the motivation for such tool, as this was one of the main drawbacks cited for traditional short concrete applications.
Suggestion: replace as possible “shortconcrete” with “short concrete”.
- The term "the engineering effect" in the manuscript is not precise. Please be more specific on which aspects the authors are referring to.
Section 2- Composition and structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete
In this Section, the authors presented the necessary background about the methods applied, mainly related to developing the composition and structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete. The Figures were well prepared in this Section. I have only minor comments.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- I missed a Figure with the cross-section view of the steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete and surrounding concrete after assembling. Please, consider adding some information or figure on this.
Section 3 - Analytical solutions
In this Section, the authors presented an adequate description of the analytical methods considered to estimate the inner forces of the structure using the proposed specimen. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions of improvement below:
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- Page 5: The parameters such as “Ka” and “Z0” should be explained in Figure 4
- Page 6: What is the meaning of “ρ” and “φ“in the text? This information should be described
In the sentence "The structural material strength of the bottommost part of the circular shaft for the field craft tests in this paper was verified by Eq. (7) and the strength safety factors for steel corrugated plate and mold bag concrete were calculated as: 321.2 and 699 respectively." Maybe the authors should include a description of the material properties considered in these calculations.
Section 4 - Numerical simulations
The authors should consider improving the description of the following aspects and results.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- In the sentence " The constitutive laws of the above mentioned springs are referred to the experiment data from independent shear and tensile tests of the shear connectors embedded in concrete in the relevant literature". The authors should be more specific on the material properties considered for such spring.
- In the section “Loads and boundary conditions”, the authors should describe the values and how the load was introduced in the numerical model. A Figure would be welcome showing the displacements restrained and the loads applied in the numerical model. For instance, which value of “Ka” was considered to determine the load? The values of the pressures used in the numerical models should also be described.
- In the sentence "the ABAQUS 2D model was used to simulate the forces at the base of the support structure under different working conditions.". This information is not clear. The authors should consider adding more details about the numerical models using 2D conditions.
- In Figure 10, both steel and concrete are working tensiled. This information should be discussed in the text.
- The values of the tensile stresses are too small. There is some reason for this? Was the design too conservative?
Section 5: Field test
- In the sentence “The theoretical volume of a single mold bag after forming is approximately 0.134m3 “ I missed some Figure with more detailed information about the thickness of each layer of the corrugated steel plate-mold bag concrete.
Section 6: Conclusions
The conclusions are supported by the presented methods and results. Besides, the conclusions are valuable for future investigations in this field.
English writing:
In general, the manuscript is written in reasonable English. Nevertheless, a moderate English review is required to avoid minor grammatical errors.
Figures and tables.
Most Figures allow an understanding of the methods and results and were well prepared.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageIn general, the manuscript is written in reasonable English. Nevertheless, a moderate English review is required to avoid minor grammatical errors.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
The paper presents a comprehensive investigation on the behavior of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete and its application in a circular shaft. The authors addressed the problem by analytical calculations, 3D and 2D numerical models, and an exciting field test. In summary, the methods and results support all the conclusions brought by the study. Besides that, the paper also fulfills the shortcomings that frequently arise with short concrete applications. Nevertheless, I identified some minor aspects that should be addressed by the authors to improve the clarity of the manuscript. Based on this, my final recommendation is to accept with minor revisions required.
Below, I present some suggestions, questions and recommendations that the authors should carefully address in the revised paper.
Title: The Title summarizes well the content of the paper.
Abstract: In general, the Abstract is well structured since it provides the motivation of the proposed study, purpose, methods, main results, and conclusions of the paper. However, I identified some aspects that should be improved in the Abstract, detailed below. Besides, in general, the Abstract should undergo careful editorial language review. I identified many places where the wrong preposition was used or some article was missing. In many places, it is also required to fix the agreement.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
General: consider splitting the purpose and the motivation into two sentences in the Abstract.
In the sentence: “To cater for the problems of poor working”. Consider using “To cater to the problems of poor working..”
In the sentence: “on the thin walled cylinder”. Please, consider using “on the thin-walled cylinder”.
In the sentence “such as tunnel”. The authors should correct to “such as tunnels”.
Answer: Thanks very much for your suggestion. In response to expert comments, additional clarification has been provided in the abstract, and the specific changes are shown in yellow in the abstract.
Section 1: Introduction
General: The authors present the main ideas required in the Introduction adequately: (i) context, (ii) motivation of the proposed research, (iv) purpose of the paper, and (v) methods applied. I suggest mainly undergoing a careful English review on this Topic and improving the following aspects below.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
General: In many places, I identified minor grammatical errors related to "subject-verb agreement", "correct article usage before the subject" and "agreement mistake". I suggest undergoing a careful English review of the whole manuscript.
Question: steel corrugated plate may decrease the high rebound rate of short concrete? This information could be discussed in the motivation for such tool, as this was one of the main drawbacks cited for traditional short concrete applications.
Suggestion: replace as possible “shortconcrete” with “short concrete”.
- The term "the engineering effect" in the manuscript is not precise. Please be more specific on which aspects the authors are referring to.
Answer: Thanks very much for your suggestion. In accordance with expert opinion, the term “shotcrete” has been replaced throughout the article, and the “engineering effect” have been expanded to explain the changes, which are shown in the yellow font of the introduction.
Under the action of filling pressure, the mold bag concrete forms a convex-concave random shape with the shape of the excavation surface and the corrugated steel plate, which can densely fill the structural gap between the excavation surface and the corrugated steel plate and ensure that there is no leakage of the slurry.
Section 2- Composition and structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete
In this Section, the authors presented the necessary background about the methods applied, mainly related to developing the composition and structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete. The Figures were well prepared in this Section. I have only minor comments.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- I missed a Figure with the cross-section view of the steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete and surrounding concrete after assembling. Please, consider adding some information or figure on this.
Answer: Thanks very much for your suggestion. The cross-section view of the steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete combination described by the editor is shown in Figure 7.
Section 3 - Analytical solutions
In this Section, the authors presented an adequate description of the analytical methods considered to estimate the inner forces of the structure using the proposed specimen. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions of improvement below:
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- Page 5: The parameters such as “Ka” and “Z0” should be explained in Figure 4
- Page 6: What is the meaning of “ρ” and “φ“in the text? This information should be described
In the sentence "The structural material strength of the bottommost part of the circular shaft for the field craft tests in this paper was verified by Eq. (7) and the strength safety factors for steel corrugated plate and mold bag concrete were calculated as: 321.2 and 699 respectively." Maybe the authors should include a description of the material properties considered in these calculations.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. We have revised the article based on your suggestions and have made the following changes to the legend.
Section 4 - Numerical simulations
The authors should consider improving the description of the following aspects and results.
Technical / Editorial comments / Suggestions/Questions to the authors
- In the sentence " The constitutive laws of the above mentioned springs are referred to the experiment data from independent shear and tensile tests of the shear connectors embedded in concrete in the relevant literature". The authors should be more specific on the material properties considered for such spring.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. We have revised the article according to your suggestions. In Abaqus numerical simulation software, the set parameters of the spring are force and displacement, and the parameters used in the simulation in this paper are referred to the values in the corresponding references.
- In the section “Loads and boundary conditions”, the authors should describe the values and how the load was introduced in the numerical model. A Figure would be welcome showing the displacements restrained and the loads applied in the numerical model. For instance, which value of “Ka” was considered to determine the load? The values of the pressures used in the numerical models should also be described.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. We have revised the article according to your suggestions. Referring to Fig. 4 and Table 1, it is not difficult to calculate the value of earth pressure.
- In the sentence "the ABAQUS 2D model was used to simulate the forces at the base of the support structure under different working conditions.". This information is not clear. The authors should consider adding more details about the numerical models using 2D conditions.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The ABAQUS 2D model in the article only considered the deformation and displacement of steel and concrete under external loads in one plane, and indeed did not take into account the properties of the contact surfaces. Again, we thank the experts for their constructive comments, and the authors will conduct further in-depth research on this issue in the future.
- In Figure 10, both steel and concrete are working tensiled. This information should be discussed in the text.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. Plastic materials, such as stainless steel, tend to fail by yielding, and the use of Von Mises stress as a failure determination indicator, based on the fourth strength theory, does not indicate the material's tensile or compressive condition.
- The values of the tensile stresses are too small. There is some reason for this? Was the design too conservative?
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The smaller values in the simulation results are mainly due to the fact that the load values are calculated using the actual experimental stratigraphic parameters, whereas the depth of the field test pit is smaller and therefore the external load is smaller. In addition, since this was the first time that this type of support structure was tested, the design parameters were taken conservatively to ensure safety.
Section 5: Field test
- In the sentence “The theoretical volume of a single mold bag after forming is approximately 0.134m3 “ I missed some Figure with more detailed information about the thickness of each layer of the corrugated steel plate-mold bag concrete.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. In accordance with the Expert's comments, additional clarifications have been made in the text, and the specific changes are shown in yellow in subsection 5.2, paragraph 2.
The thickness of a single mold bag of concrete is determined by the thickness of the aperture of the corrugated steel plate from the excavation surface.
Section 6: Conclusions
The conclusions are supported by the presented methods and results. Besides, the conclusions are valuable for future investigations in this field.
English writing:
In general, the manuscript is written in reasonable English. Nevertheless, a moderate English review is required to avoid minor grammatical errors.
Figures and tables.
Most Figures allow an understanding of the methods and results and were well prepared.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
In general, the manuscript is written in reasonable English. Nevertheless, a moderate English review is required to avoid minor grammatical errors.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe introduction provides a good background on traditional support methods and their limitations. However, it could be beneficial to mention the importance of underground engineering and why addressing these limitations matters.
While the paper cites several studies, it could benefit from a broader range of sources to demonstrate a comprehensive literature review.
The paper is well-written and uses appropriate language for a scientific paper. However, there are some minor grammatical issues that need attention.
The conclusion summarizes the purpose and contributions of the paper effectively. However, it could be strengthened by briefly restating the key findings or results of your research.
Consider adding a section on future work, suggesting potential research directions or applications of the innovative supporting structure you propose.
Overall, this paper is well-structured and presents a compelling argument for the innovative combination of steel corrugated plates and mold bag concrete in supporting structures for tunnels and foundation pits. However, some minor grammatical issues and opportunities for further development in terms of research background and citation variety could be addressed to enhance the paper's quality.
Author Response
The introduction provides a good background on traditional support methods and their limitations. However, it could be beneficial to mention the importance of underground engineering and why addressing these limitations matters.
While the paper cites several studies, it could benefit from a broader range of sources to demonstrate a comprehensive literature review.
The paper is well-written and uses appropriate language for a scientific paper. However, there are some minor grammatical issues that need attention.
The conclusion summarizes the purpose and contributions of the paper effectively. However, it could be strengthened by briefly restating the key findings or results of your research.
Consider adding a section on future work, suggesting potential research directions or applications of the innovative supporting structure you propose.
Overall, this paper is well-structured and presents a compelling argument for the innovative combination of steel corrugated plates and mold bag concrete in supporting structures for tunnels and foundation pits. However, some minor grammatical issues and opportunities for further development in terms of research background and citation variety could be addressed to enhance the paper's quality.
Answer: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. In response to your suggestions, the authors have added a summary of other scholars' studies as well as directions for future improvement of this trial in the Introduction and Conclusion sections, respectively.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1. The novelty of the work must be clearly addressed and discussed. Compare your research with existing research findings, and highlight novelty, (compare your work with existing research findings and highlight novelty). The previous numerical simulations of steel corrugated plate and mold bag concrete need to be strengthened to summarize the current state of the research.
2. The main objective of the work must be written more clearly. Also, you should state the strengths and limitations of your study.
3. References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ] and placed before the punctuation. The reference list should include the full title, as the ACS style guide recommends.
4. The detailed geometry and dimension of the whole ring model and stiffened plated used in the FE model (Figure 6) must be stated in detail.
5. Some simplifications to the M22-type bolts need to be explained in the numerical modeling.
6. The reference of Table 1, the main physical and mechanical parameters of each material, should be stated from the previous references.
7. The detailed figure should describe Applied loads and boundary conditions to clearly state the proposed FE modeling.
8. How do you calculate the stress distribution between the crest and trough of the steel corrugated plate (shown in Fig. 11)? Describe the path along the length/ radius to state the location of the measured lines.
9. State the unit in the x-axis of Figure 12 c excavation depth.
10. Besides distributions of stresses of (a) the steel corrugated plate and (b) the mold bag concrete
10.shown in Figures 10 and 11. The authors are also recommended to describe the displacement distribution on the steel corrugated plate and the mold bag concrete
11. It is suggested to include a paragraph at the end of the conclusion section describing the applications of the present work, recommendations, and future scope. The recommendation for future studies needs to be stated at the end of the conclusion section
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language required
Author Response
- The novelty of the work must be clearly addressed and discussed. Compare your research with existing research findings, and highlight novelty, (compare your work with existing research findings and highlight novelty). The previous numerical simulations of steel corrugated plate and mold bag concrete need to be strengthened to summarize the current state of the research.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. As this combined structure is proposed for the first time in this paper, the summary of the associated corrugated steel sheets and moulded concrete is not in place, and the authors will further summarise the research on this structure and compare it to highlight the novelty and innovation of this structure in their subsequent work.
- The main objective of the work must be written more clearly. Also, you should state the strengths and limitations of your study.
Answer: Thanks very much for your comment. We have revised the introductory part of the article according to your suggestions.
- References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ] and placed before the punctuation. The reference list should include the full title, as the ACS style guide recommends.
Answer: Thanks very much for your comment. We have modified the citation format of the references in the article based on your suggestion.
- The detailed geometry and dimension of the whole ring model and stiffened plated used in the FE model (Figure 6) must be stated in detail.
Answer: Thanks very much for your comment. Detailed dimensional parameters of the finite element model are given in the first paragraph of subsection 5.2.
- Some simplifications to the M22-type bolts need to be explained in the numerical modeling.
Answer: Thanks so much for your comment. We have revised the article according to your suggestions.
The nut and screw were merged to model as one piece, and the nut shape was changed to a round shape, as shown in the bolt in Figure 6.
- The reference of Table 1, the main physical and mechanical parameters of each material, should be stated from the previous references.
Answer: Thanks so much for your comment. We have revised the article according to your suggestions.
- The detailed figure should describe Applied loads and boundary conditions to clearly state the proposed FE modeling.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. One of the external loads applied to the model is the structural deadweight and the other is the earth pressure load shown in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 was modified to show the external loads more clearly. Boundary conditions were also added in Figure 6.
- How do you calculate the stress distribution between the crest and trough of the steel corrugated plate (shown in Fig. 11)? Describe the path along the length/ radius to state the location of the measured lines.
Answer: The peak and trough stresses shown in Fig. 11 are the surface stresses at the peaks and troughs of the steel corrugated plate customised against the outer side in Abaqus numerical simulation software, thanks to the constructive comments of the experts, and the authors will further carry out an in-depth study on this issue in the future.
- State the unit in the x-axis of Figure 12 c excavation depth.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion.The width of the members according to the test design is 0.7 metres deep per ring.
- Besides distributions of stresses of (a) the steel corrugated plate and (b) the mold bag concrete shown in Figures 10 and 11. The authors are also recommended to describe the displacement distribution on the steel corrugated plate and the mold bag concrete
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. As noted by the reviewer, the article was not clear here, and the article has been revised here.
The hoop strain and radial displacement of the structure are very small.
- It is suggested to include a paragraph at the end of the conclusion section describing the applications of the present work, recommendations, and future scope. The recommendation for future studies needs to be stated at the end of the conclusion section
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. Thank you very much for your comment. We have revised the article according to your suggestions and added a new recommendation and outlook for subsequent trials in the final conclusion section.
In the field process test research, this paper only carried out the first phase of the test, initially verified the feasibility of the new support structure construction process and structural mechanical effect. In the next step of the experimental research, in-depth study should be carried out on how to optimise the design and installation of the mould bag, strengthen the control of construction errors, and improve the construction and installation accuracy and speed.
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments on applsci-2649502-peer-review-v1:
In order to address the issues of poor working conditions, high energy consumption, and rebound associated with shotcrete in tunnel engineering, herein, the authors propose a new support scheme. This scheme involves the use of steel corrugated plates in combination with mold bag concrete. Analytical solutions for the stresses on both the steel corrugated plates and mold bag concrete were derived based on thin-walled cylinder theory, and their respective strength safety factors were presented. The mechanical performance of the third ring of the main structure was then investigated using numerical simulations based on a 'load-structure' 3D model. These numerical results were verified using both classical theoretical analysis and the proposed model, after which parametric studies were conducted using the numerical method. Finally, a field test was carried out in a circular shaft to verify the feasibility of the structure and process, as well as the engineering effect. The authors concluded that the combination of steel corrugated plates and mold bag concrete is indeed feasible, and could provide a rapid support technology for underground engineering.
The major concerns of the reviewer on this paper are listed in the following:
1. I am having trouble understanding what novel ideas or findings the authors of this work have brought to the table. It would be really helpful if they could elaborate more on the unique aspects of their investigation that make this paper stand out.
2. The convergence of the proposed numerical model based on the ANSYS, as well as the types of elements used for various parts of the composite structure, have been not displayed. Since the studied problem is a linear pseudo-dynamic problem, it just suffices to plot the maximum hoop and radial stress, as well as the maximum radial deformation in the steel medium, as a function of the number of elements and demonstrate its convergence.
3. How the interface of the “mold bag concrete” and the “steel corrugated plate” has been modeled and which type of element has been used for modeling this crucial part of the composite structure? Please explain in some detail.
4. The boundary condition of the numerical model, and the pseudo-dynamical applied load is almost not clear to the reviewer. What types of boundary conditions have been taken into account and which values have been imposed to the model as boundary values? Please explain these carefully in the paper.
5. In driving the elastic field stress fields in the “mold bag concrete” and “steel corrugated plate”, as presented in Equations (3) and (4), it seems that the wavy surface effect of the steel plate has been ignored and the steel structure is considered as a circular cylindrical solid body! Is this correct? Is such a simplification reasonable in modeling? As we know, when the amplitude of the wavy surface would be negligible compared to the radius of the steel corrugated shell-like structure, this becomes a rational assumption in the lack of major interfacial in-contact tractions between the above two major bodies. How this can be handled by the authors?
6. Given Comment 5, the main assumptions in developing the analytical solution given in Section 3 have been NOT mentioned explicitly. Therefore, the authors are highly requested that to provide the basic and main hypotheses of the analytical model before arriving at the analytical expressions of the stresses and strains in both “mold bag concrete” and “steel corrugated plate”.
7. With regard to the small thickness of the “steel corrugated plate”, it is beneficial to model it as a “shell-like structure” instead of using the elasticity-based elastic fields to determine their constants through imposing the boundary conditions at the innermost and outermost surfaces of the “steel corrugated plate”.
8. The possibilities of non-symmetry loading of the soil pressure on the outermost surface of the “steel corrugated plate” have been not taken into account as the crucial scenarios of loading. By considering these special cases, the shear stress will also be developed in the steel plate and it will endanger the whole stability of the steel structure. How this can be considered in the analytical modeling of the problem and other numerical ones? Please explain.
9. I should also declare that the role of the end conditions of the “steel corrugated plate” has been also not considered in the analytical modeling. As obvious, for practical uses, the end of the steel structure should be suitably fixed in the earth through specific treatments. Please clarify.
10. Some technical issues:
- What is the purpose of the support structure being in an elastic state during the concrete pouring process?
- What is the purpose of monitoring earth pressure and surface strain?
- How it can be controlled/checked that the volume behind the steel corrugated panel has been fully filled by the concrete?
- Would a single hole for pouring concrete behind each steel corrugated panel be enough? Is there any special specifications and design approaches for the locations of these holes (i.e., their radial and longitudinal inter-hole distances)?
11. How deep can we use these support-like structures? No detailed explanations on the design of these support like-structures have been given. Please give extra plots of depth-concrete thickness, depth-steel thickness, and so on to show the importance of engineering design behind these crucial curves.
12. Have the authors considered the potential risk for corrosion of the steel corrugated plate in the proposed composite structure? With the large surface area exposed to concrete on one side and air on the other, the risk of corrosion is high. It is important to take this into account as the structure may experience severe corrosion within 0.5-2 years after installation.
13. Deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and neural networks have a significant impact on structural engineering. They are extensively used in numerical modeling, predicting interest fields, and designing the engineering structures, making them essential in this field. Referencing related papers on efficient algorithms can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the present topic. By this virtue, the authors are strongly recommended to explain the applications of both the DL and AI, from both modeling and algorithm developing points of view, through displaying most of the following works:
- Jia, Z., Wang, W., Zhang, J., & Li, H. (2022). Contact high-temperature strain automatic calibration and precision compensation research.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster
- Du, H., Du, S., Li, W.: Probabilistic time series forecasting with deep non-linear state space models.
- Zhang, Z., De Luca, G., Archambault, B., Chavez, J., Rice, B. Traffic dataset and dynamic routing algorithm in traffic simulation.
- Zhao H, Ma L. Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Hsiao, I. H., Chung, C.Y. AI-infused semantic model to enrich and expand programming question generation.
- Chen, J., et al.: Matrix-based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets.
14. The English of the paper should be improved. For the authors guidance, the following needed modifications are given as some examples:
- Throughout the paper: “cross section” must be replaced by “cross-section”.
- Section 3.1, “structure and boundary conditions” must be modified to “structure, and boundary conditions”.
- Section 3.1, “pressure calculation model of thin-walled cylinder” must be modified to “pressure calculation model of the thin-walled cylinder”. In addition, there are many other cases in the paper that the article “the” has been missed and should be suitably included through expert revisions.
- All the scalar factors and parameters in the paper should be typed in the italic form. As is obvious, there are some miss-styled errors in Figure 5 (i.e., R1, R2, and R3) and other places within the paper that this style error has been not respected and needs further attention from the authors.
- Section 4.4, first paragraph: “CLARK (Clark, 1950)” must be changed to “Clark (1950)”.
- Throughout the paper: “stabilising” must change to “stabilizing”.
- Page 16, “42.5 grade” must modify to “42.5-grade” for more consistency with other published works.
- Page 16, “sand and fine stone” must be modified to “sand, and fine stone”.
After carefully reviewing the queries addressed by the authors, I would be happy to re-review the revised paper and provide any further comments that may be necessary for the next round of the review process. Thank you for your efforts in ensuring the quality and accuracy of this work.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThe English of the paper should be improved. For the authors guidance, the following needed modifications are given as some examples:
- Throughout the paper: “cross section” must be replaced by “cross-section”.
- Section 3.1, “structure and boundary conditions” must be modified to “structure, and boundary conditions”.
- Section 3.1, “pressure calculation model of thin-walled cylinder” must be modified to “pressure calculation model of the thin-walled cylinder”. In addition, there are many other cases in the paper that the article “the” has been missed and should be suitably included through expert revisions.
- All the scalar factors and parameters in the paper should be typed in the italic form. As is obvious, there are some miss-styled errors in Figure 5 (i.e., R1, R2, and R3) and other places within the paper that this style error has been not respected and needs further attention from the authors.
- Section 4.4, first paragraph: “CLARK (Clark, 1950)” must be changed to “Clark (1950)”.
- Throughout the paper: “stabilising” must change to “stabilizing”.
- Page 16, “42.5 grade” must modify to “42.5-grade” for more consistency with other published works.
Page 16, “sand and fine stone” must be modified to “sand, and fine stone”.
Author Response
The major concerns of the reviewer on this paper are listed in the following:
- I am having trouble understanding what novel ideas or findings the authors of this work have brought to the table. It would be really helpful if they could elaborate more on the unique aspects of their investigation that make this paper stand out.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. This project will develop a new type of support structure formed by the combination of the corrugated steel plate and mold bag concrete and will provide new ideas for underground engineering support technology from scientific theory and engineering technology. The article mainly investigates its load bearing performance and design method through theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, on-site engineering test and other methods. It is proposed to study the load bearing performance and design method from the three levels of materials, components and overall structure through theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, laboratory loading test, field engineering test and other methods.
- The convergence of the proposed numerical model based on the ANSYS, as well as the types of elements used for various parts of the composite structure, have been not displayed. Since the studied problem is a linear pseudo-dynamic problem, it just suffices to plot the maximum hoop and radial stress, as well as the maximum radial deformation in the steel medium, as a function of the number of elements and demonstrate its convergence.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. In this paper, Abaqus numerical simulation software is used, and the modelling is based on C3D8R grid cells, and the criteria for determining whether the structure has failed are the fourth strength theory and the use of Mises stresses as the failure criterion. Subsection 4.4 of the article presents a numerical model to validate the theoretical calculations.
- How the interface of the “mold bag concrete” and the “steel corrugated plate” has been modeled and which type of element has been used for modeling this crucial part of the composite structure? Please explain in some detail.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The contact interface between the corrugated steel plate and the concrete is defined using friction in the software, with the specific parameters described in the first paragraph of subsection 4.2.
- The boundary condition of the numerical model, and the pseudo-dynamical applied load is almost not clear to the reviewer. What types of boundary conditions have been taken into account and which values have been imposed to the model as boundary values? Please explain these carefully in the paper.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. One of the external loads applied to the model is the structural deadweight and the other is the earth pressure load shown in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 was modified to show the external loads more clearly. Boundary conditions were also added in Figure 6.
- In driving the elastic field stress fields in the “mold bag concrete” and “steel corrugated plate”, as presented in Equations (3) and (4), it seems that the wavy surface effect of the steel plate has been ignored and the steel structure is considered as a circular cylindrical solid body! Is this correct? Is such a simplification reasonable in modeling? As we know, when the amplitude of the wavy surface would be negligible compared to the radius of the steel corrugated shell-like structure, this becomes a rational assumption in the lack of major interfacial in-contact tractions between the above two major bodies. How this can be handled by the authors?
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. It is assumed that the two elastomers remain in "full contact" on the contact surface, that is, they neither break away from each other nor slide each other.
- Given Comment 5, the main assumptions in developing the analytical solution given in Section 3 have been NOT mentioned explicitly. Therefore, the authors are highly requested that to provide the basic and main hypotheses of the analytical model before arriving at the analytical expressions of the stresses and strains in both “mold bag concrete” and “steel corrugated plate”.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The basic and main assumptions of the analytical model are provided before deriving the analytical expressions for the stresses and strains of "Mold Bag Concrete" and "Corrugated Steel Plate" in accordance with the recommendations of the experts.
- With regard to the small thickness of the “steel corrugated plate”, it is beneficial to model it as a “shell-like structure” instead of using the elasticity-based elastic fields to determine their constants through imposing the boundary conditions at the innermost and outermost surfaces of the “steel corrugated plate”.
Answer: Thanks again for the constructive comments from the experts, in the future, the authors will use the shell cell model to model the corrugated steel in their modelling and further conduct an in-depth study on this issue.
- The possibilities of non-symmetry loading of the soil pressure on the outermost surface of the “steel corrugated plate” have been not taken into account as the crucial scenarios of loading. By considering these special cases, the shear stress will also be developed in the steel plate and it will endanger the whole stability of the steel structure. How this can be considered in the analytical modeling of the problem and other numerical ones? Please explain.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. Firstly, the earth pressure load is a full ring symmetrical load applied to the concrete, and secondly, two sets of shear connectors are set up at the contact interface between corrugated steel and concrete to transfer the shear force and limit the slip between the two, thus avoiding the destabilisation of the structure as a whole. This is explained in the article in the second paragraph of subsection 4.2.
- I should also declare that the role of the end conditions of the “steel corrugated plate” has been also not considered in the analytical modeling. As obvious, for practical uses, the end of the steel structure should be suitably fixed in the earth through specific treatments. Please clarify.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. In the actual test is to use the pin to fix the bottom of corrugated steel in the soil layer, but in the simulation process only consider restraining the vertical displacement of the bottom, in the future the authors will be further for the problem of in-depth research.
- Some technical issues:
- What is the purpose of the support structure being in an elastic state during the concrete pouring process?
- What is the purpose of monitoring earth pressure and surface strain?
- How it can be controlled/checked that the volume behind the steel corrugated panel has been fully filled by the concrete?
- Would a single hole for pouring concrete behind each steel corrugated panel be enough? Is there any special specifications and design approaches for the locations of these holes (i.e., their radial and longitudinal inter-hole distances)?
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. Firstly, one of the objectives of the field test is to ensure that the mould bag does not rupture during concrete filling, and that the structure as a whole is in a stable condition without large deformation and elasticity. Secondly, the structural strain is monitored to understand the deformation of the structure during the construction process. In practice, when concrete flows out of the pressure-control pipe opening at the top of the corrugated steel, it is determined that the space behind the corrugated plate has been filled. Based on the results of the current field tests, it is sufficient to open one filling opening for each corrugated steel plate. Thanks again for the constructive comments from the experts, and the authors will further conduct an in-depth study on this issue in the future.
- How deep can we use these support-like structures? No detailed explanations on the design of these support like-structures have been given. Please give extra plots of depth-concrete thickness, depth-steel thickness, and so on to show the importance of engineering design behind these crucial curves.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. As the structure is a new idea first proposed by the authors, only the relevant construction process feasibility tests have been carried out, and the tests that have been carried out have been designed to a depth of 10 metres. In the future, the authors will further carry out in-depth research on this problem and give the theoretical calculation results of the relevant design parameters such as depth-concrete thickness and depth-steel thickness.
- Have the authors considered the potential risk for corrosion of the steel corrugated plate in the proposed composite structure? With the large surface area exposed to concrete on one side and air on the other, the risk of corrosion is high. It is important to take this into account as the structure may experience severe corrosion within 0.5-2 years after installation.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. In carrying out subsequent field tests did find the corrosion of the corrugated steel surface, we will be in the subsequent test and design of this targeted research and discussion, thank you again for the constructive comments of the experts.
- Deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and neural networks have a significant impact on structural engineering. They are extensively used in numerical modeling, predicting interest fields, and designing the engineering structures, making them essential in this field. Referencing related papers on efficient algorithms can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the present topic. By this virtue, the authors are strongly recommended to explain the applications of both the DL and AI, from both modeling and algorithm developing points of view, through displaying most of the following works:
- Jia, Z., Wang, W., Zhang, J., & Li, H. (2022). Contact high-temperature strain automatic calibration and precision compensation research.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster
- Du, H., Du, S., Li, W.: Probabilistic time series forecasting with deep non-linear state space models.
- Zhang, Z., De Luca, G., Archambault, B., Chavez, J., Rice, B. Traffic dataset and dynamic routing algorithm in traffic simulation.
- Zhao H, Ma L. Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Hsiao, I. H., Chung, C.Y. AI-infused semantic model to enrich and expand programming question generation.
- Chen, J., et al.: Matrix-based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets.
Answer: I thank the experts for their valuable comments, and I will carefully read the literature and related books listed by the editors and combine the structure with Deep Learning (DL), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Neural Networks in my future research.
- The English of the paper should be improved. For the authors guidance, the following needed modifications are given as some examples:
- Throughout the paper: “cross section” must be replaced by “cross-section”.
- Section 3.1, “structure and boundary conditions” must be modified to “structure, and boundary conditions”.
- Section 3.1, “pressure calculation model of thin-walled cylinder” must be modified to “pressure calculation model of the thin-walled cylinder”. In addition, there are many other cases in the paper that the article “the” has been missed and should be suitably included through expert revisions.
- All the scalar factors and parameters in the paper should be typed in the italic form. As is obvious, there are some miss-styled errors in Figure 5 (i.e., R1, R2, and R3) and other places within the paper that this style error has been not respected and needs further attention from the authors.
- Section 4.4, first paragraph: “CLARK (Clark, 1950)” must be changed to “Clark (1950)”.
- Throughout the paper: “stabilising” must change to “stabilizing”.
- Page 16, “42.5 grade” must modify to “42.5-grade” for more consistency with other published works.
- Page 16, “sand and fine stone” must be modified to “sand, and fine stone”.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. All of the above issues are corrected by making corrections in the article, and the yellow font in various places in the article. The author will follow up with corrections to the language issues throughout the article.
After carefully reviewing the queries addressed by the authors, I would be happy to re-review the revised paper and provide any further comments that may be necessary for the next round of the review process. Thank you for your efforts in ensuring the quality and accuracy of this work.
Reviewer 5 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsREVIEWER’S COMMENTS (applsci-2649502)
The manuscript presents a study on a series of numerical simulations for the investigation of the mechanical performance of the third ring of the main structure based on the ‘load-structure’ 3D model by proposing the use of mold bag concrete to fill the void between the corrugated steel plate and the excavation face. The manuscript needs a minor revision for it to be accepted for publication.
1. The authors should avoid the use of lumped-up references such as “(Bishnoi et al., 2021; Moffat et al., 2017; Nimbalkar & Indraratna, 2016; Palmeira et al., 2021; Rasouli & Fatahi, 2021; Xu & Fatahi, 2019)”. A brief summary of the findings of these studies can be highlighted.
2. The authors should clearly indicate what (a), (b) and (c) in Fig. 5 represent by labelling the three Figures.
3. It is important that the authors discuss the implications of the mechanical parameters presented in Table 1.
4. Looking at Fig. 10, I do not agree with the first part of the following statement: “The stress distribution law of the mold bag concrete is consistent with that of the steel corrugated plate, and the stress on the side close to the steel corrugated plate is larger.”. I can observe that the stress distribution law of the mold bag concrete has variation with that of the steel corrugated plate.
Author Response
The manuscript presents a study on a series of numerical simulations for the investigation of the mechanical performance of the third ring of the main structure based on the ‘load-structure’ 3D model by proposing the use of mold bag concrete to fill the void between the corrugated steel plate and the excavation face. The manuscript needs a minor revision for it to be accepted for publication.
- The authors should avoid the use of lumped-up references such as “(Bishnoi et al., 2021; Moffat et al., 2017; Nimbalkar & Indraratna, 2016; Palmeira et al., 2021; Rasouli & Fatahi, 2021; Xu & Fatahi, 2019)”. A brief summary of the findings of these studies can be highlighted.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The authors address these issues by deleting citations one by one for references in the text that do not match, and expanding on each of the lumped-up references.
- The authors should clearly indicate what (a), (b) and (c) in Fig. 5 represent by labelling the three Figures.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The first paragraph of subsection 3.1 of the article is an explanation of the splitting of the combined structure of the elastodynamic thin-walled cylinder theory of Fig. 5.
- It is important that the authors discuss the implications of the mechanical parameters presented in Table 1.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. In accordance with the Expert's comments, additional clarifications have been made in the text, and the specific changes are shown in yellow in subsection 4.1, paragraph 1.
Determine the magnitude of external loads on the structure according to the parameters listed in the table.
- Looking at Fig. 10, I do not agree with the first part of the following statement: “The stress distribution law of the mold bag concrete is consistent with that of the steel corrugated plate, and the stress on the side close to the steel corrugated plate is larger.”. I can observe that the stress distribution law of the mold bag concrete has variation with that of the steel corrugated plate.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. As noted by the reviewer, the article was not clear here, and the article has been revised here.
The maximum Mises stress generated by the corrugated steel plates was 0.4 MPa and the maximum Mises stress generated by the mold bag concrete was 0.1 MPa, which were both less than the control indexes of the respective materials, and the members were within the safe range.
Round 2
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThanks for the provided answers to the reviewer for the previous raised queries in the previous versions; however, the answers to some of them are still NOT satisfactory; therefore, the authors to carefully explain and clarify them in the responses and also in the paper’s manuscript for the last time:
Comment 1:
As I see, no feasible approaches have been proposed to increase the lateral stability of the composite support structure to arrive at a structure with a higher safety factor, ensuring us to support a larger area via this methodology shortly. For example, the possibility of usage of longitudinally and radial stiffeners for the corrugated steel plate and the whole support structure will be very beneficial, allowing us to enlarge both the excavation radius and depth by increasing the stability of the support structure. Please explain and discuss this crucial issue in the paper through possible methods to enhance the stability.
Comment 2:
In the previous Comment~12, I questioned the considering the possibility of the corrosion of the steel corrugated plate used in the composite support structure; however, the given answers are so general. In reinforced concrete structures the concrete covers the rebars and the concrete cover acts as a protective layer as well as a physical barrier to prevent the early stage corrosion, herein, the possibility of the steel corrugated plate is fairly high since form one side is in contact with the concrete and from the other part in contact with the air and oxygen, indicating the chance of steel corrosion. A feasible approach to reduce the corrosion effect on the structural support stability is the use of cathodic protection which could be economical for huge projects.
Comment 3:
Concerning the importance of algorithms of deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and artificial neural network (ANN) in various problems associated with the structural mechanics, including support structures like this studied here by the authors, this issue has been NOT appropriately highlighted and explained in the paper as it is seen in the responses of the authors to the previous comments (see the below one):
Before arriving at the analysis of the problem via the DL-based or AI-based approaches, it is necessary to investigate the roles of a set of influential factors (geometry of the support and excavation, geometry of concrete and corrugated steel, characteristics of the surrounding soil (density, adhesion, friction angle, saturation, and so on)) on the maximum principal stress generated in the support structure. Thereafter, these inclusive data obtained from suitable analytical models or numerical simulations can be utilized for properly predicting the target function or field (for example, maximum hoop or radial or principal stress. These aims will be then reachable by employing the relevant theories and basic algorithms of DL, ANN, and AI, which could bring about many applications for them in a diverse range of engineering problems. To provide more guidance to the readers on the application of these powerful algorithms, I highly recommend the authors explain the above issues by referencing the following works:
- Chen, J., et al.: Matrix-based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster
- Du, H., Du, S., Li, W.: Probabilistic time series forecasting with deep non-linear state space models.
- Zhang, Z., De Luca, G., Archambault, B., Chavez, J., Rice, B. Traffic dataset and dynamic routing algorithm in traffic simulation.
- Zhao H, Ma L. Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Jia, Z., Wang, W., Zhang, J., & Li, H. Contact high-temperature strain automatic calibration and precision compensation research.
It would be beneficial if the authors could explain most of the above-introduced papers (>3). This will provide a better understanding of the various applications of AI and DL algorithms and their effectiveness in solving engineering problems, particularly the one being studied by scholars with its inherent interactional, coupling, and complexity. By providing this information, readers can gain a deeper insight into the topic and make informed decisions regarding the use of the algorithm in their own work for future research works.
Comment 4:
There are still some grammar errors, as well as long and poorly constructed sentences within the manuscript of the paper that should be carefully revised to arrive at a more technical and readable text. Some of these deficiencies have been provided in the following:
- Page 10: The phrase “CLARK analytical solution” must be changed to “Clark analytical solution” for more consistency with other parts of the paper as well as Ref. [32].
- Page 10: It seems that the phrase “the load is taken as a radial load of 200 kPa” is somewhat ambiguous! Do you mean “the only exerted load on the support structure is taken as a radially applied load of magnitude 200 kPa”? If this is the case, please proceed with improving that accordingly; otherwise, please revise that until arriving at a more readable phrase.
- Page 18, caption of Figure 16: The present caption of this figure, namely, “Figure 16. Monitoring results of measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure and (b) Hoop strain.” Must be changed to “Figure 16. Monitoring results of the measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure, (b) Hoop strain.” (including “the” and replacing “AND” between the captions of the two subfigures with a comma symbol (i.e., “,”), aiming at more consistency with the literature).
- Page 18, Figure 16: It is better to replace the existing y-label (i.e., “Microstrain (με)”) with “Strain (×10-6)”, aiming at more consistency with the current literature.
- Page 18, first paragraph in Subsection 5.4: The phrase “pour concrete, until the monitoring” must be changed to “pour concrete until the monitoring” (omitting the unnecessary comma for better readability).
- Page 19: The phrase “numerical simulation and field test” must be changed to “numerical simulation, and field test”, since a comma has been missed in the earlier version.
- Page 19: The phrase “thickness of the mold bag concrete and the excavation radius of the circular shaft” must be changed to “thickness of the mold bag concrete, and the excavation radius of the circular shaft”.
- Page 19: The phrase “majority of the external load” must be changed to “most of the external load” for more compatibility with the current technical literature.
- Page 19: The sentence “The test shows that the grouting pressure is the most strength safety factor affecting the stress state of the steel corrugated plate.”, given in the item~4 of “Conclusions”, is somehow unreadable! To increase its readability, it is suggested to be replaced with the following one: “The experiment shows that grouting pressure is the strongest safety factor that affects the stress state of corrugated steel plate.”
Therefore, the authors of the paper are highly recommended to revise them appropriately in the next version, unless the paper is rejected by the Assistant Editor or Academic Editor.
My whole evaluation on this modified version of the work is 50/100. Without appropriate and methodical explaining the above-raised issues, I cannot recommend this paper for possible publication in Applied Sciences.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThere are still some grammar errors, as well as long and poorly constructed sentences within the manuscript of the paper that should be carefully revised to arrive at a more technical and readable text. Some of these deficiencies have been provided in the following:
- Page 10: The phrase “CLARK analytical solution” must be changed to “Clark analytical solution” for more consistency with other parts of the paper as well as Ref. [32].
- Page 10: It seems that the phrase “the load is taken as a radial load of 200 kPa” is somewhat ambiguous! Do you mean “the only exerted load on the support structure is taken as a radially applied load of magnitude 200 kPa”? If this is the case, please proceed with improving that accordingly; otherwise, please revise that until arriving at a more readable phrase.
- Page 18, caption of Figure 16: The present caption of this figure, namely, “Figure 16. Monitoring results of measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure and (b) Hoop strain.” Must be changed to “Figure 16. Monitoring results of the measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure, (b) Hoop strain.” (including “the” and replacing “AND” between the captions of the two subfigures with a comma symbol (i.e., “,”), aiming at more consistency with the literature).
- Page 18, Figure 16: It is better to replace the existing y-label (i.e., “Microstrain (με)”) with “Strain (×10-6)”, aiming at more consistency with the current literature.
- Page 18, first paragraph in Subsection 5.4: The phrase “pour concrete, until the monitoring” must be changed to “pour concrete until the monitoring” (omitting the unnecessary comma for better readability).
- Page 19: The phrase “numerical simulation and field test” must be changed to “numerical simulation, and field test”, since a comma has been missed in the earlier version.
- Page 19: The phrase “thickness of the mold bag concrete and the excavation radius of the circular shaft” must be changed to “thickness of the mold bag concrete, and the excavation radius of the circular shaft”.
- Page 19: The phrase “majority of the external load” must be changed to “most of the external load” for more compatibility with the current technical literature.
- Page 19: The sentence “The test shows that the grouting pressure is the most strength safety factor affecting the stress state of the steel corrugated plate.”, given in the item~4 of “Conclusions”, is somehow unreadable! To increase its readability, it is suggested to be replaced with the following one: “The experiment shows that grouting pressure is the strongest safety factor that affects the stress state of corrugated steel plate.”
Therefore, the authors of the paper are highly recommended to revise them appropriately in the next version, unless the paper is rejected by the Assistant Editor or Academic Editor.
Author Response
Thanks for the provided answers to the reviewer for the previous raised queries in the previous versions; however, the answers to some of them are still NOT satisfactory; therefore, the authors to carefully explain and clarify them in the responses and also in the paper’s manuscript for the last time:
Comment 1:
As I see, no feasible approaches have been proposed to increase the lateral stability of the composite support structure to arrive at a structure with a higher safety factor, ensuring us to support a larger area via this methodology shortly. For example, the possibility of usage of longitudinally and radial stiffeners for the corrugated steel plate and the whole support structure will be very beneficial, allowing us to enlarge both the excavation radius and depth by increasing the stability of the support structure. Please explain and discuss this crucial issue in the paper through possible methods to enhance the stability.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. The field tests were carried out after theoretical calculations and numerical simulations in order to verify the feasibility of the new construction process for the support structure. In the case of the actual field tests, the lateral stability of the support structure can be provided by the vertical and transverse bolts. Additional explanations are provided in subsection 5.2 of the article based on the reviewers' comments. The additions are as follows：
In the case of actual field tests, the lateral stability of the support structure can be provided by both vertical and lateral bolts. Considering the complexity and diversity of the actual field construction, to ensure the lateral stability of the support structure, we can use longitudinal and radial reinforcement on the corrugated steel plate and the whole support structure. This will allow us to enlarge both the excavation radius and depth by increasing the stability of the support structure.
Comment 2:
In the previous Comment~12, I questioned the considering the possibility of the corrosion of the steel corrugated plate used in the composite support structure; however, the given answers are so general. In reinforced concrete structures the concrete covers the rebars and the concrete cover acts as a protective layer as well as a physical barrier to prevent the early stage corrosion, herein, the possibility of the steel corrugated plate is fairly high since form one side is in contact with the concrete and from the other part in contact with the air and oxygen, indicating the chance of steel corrosion. A feasible approach to reduce the corrosion effect on the structural support stability is the use of cathodic protection which could be economical for huge projects.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. During the first field tests, the authors really did not take into account the fact that corrugated steel plates exposed to air are highly susceptible to corrosion. To address this issue, the authors add a note at the conclusion of article 5. The additions are as follows.
For the corrugated steel panels exposed on the outside to do anti-corrosion treatment, such as taking measures to avoid or reduce the corrosion of steel by spraying plating on the surface or spraying anti-corrosion spray paint.
Comment 3:
Concerning the importance of algorithms of deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and artificial neural network (ANN) in various problems associated with the structural mechanics, including support structures like this studied here by the authors, this issue has been NOT appropriately highlighted and explained in the paper as it is seen in the responses of the authors to the previous comments (see the below one):
Before arriving at the analysis of the problem via the DL-based or AI-based approaches, it is necessary to investigate the roles of a set of influential factors (geometry of the support and excavation, geometry of concrete and corrugated steel, characteristics of the surrounding soil (density, adhesion, friction angle, saturation, and so on)) on the maximum principal stress generated in the support structure. Thereafter, these inclusive data obtained from suitable analytical models or numerical simulations can be utilized for properly predicting the target function or field (for example, maximum hoop or radial or principal stress. These aims will be then reachable by employing the relevant theories and basic algorithms of DL, ANN, and AI, which could bring about many applications for them in a diverse range of engineering problems. To provide more guidance to the readers on the application of these powerful algorithms, I highly recommend the authors explain the above issues by referencing the following works:
- Chen, J., et al.: Matrix-based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster
- Du, H., Du, S., Li, W.: Probabilistic time series forecasting with deep non-linear state space models.
- Zhang, Z., De Luca, G., Archambault, B., Chavez, J., Rice, B. Traffic dataset and dynamic routing algorithm in traffic simulation.
- Zhao H, Ma L. Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Jia, Z., Wang, W., Zhang, J., & Li, H. Contact high-temperature strain automatic calibration and precision compensation research.
It would be beneficial if the authors could explain most of the above-introduced papers (>3). This will provide a better understanding of the various applications of AI and DL algorithms and their effectiveness in solving engineering problems, particularly the one being studied by scholars with its inherent interactional, coupling, and complexity. By providing this information, readers can gain a deeper insight into the topic and make informed decisions regarding the use of the algorithm in their own work for future research works.
Answer: I thank the expert for their valuable comments, In my future research, I will carefully read the literature and related books listed by the editors and combine them with deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and neural networks. However, for this current paper, I will not consider using deep learning (DL), artificial intelligence (AI), and neural networks, because my understanding of these methods is still very superficial and I cannot effectively and comprehensively apply them to this paper. I will strengthen my learning of the above methods and believe that in the articles I will publish later, I will try to integrate with these new methods and tools to produce better papers. Thank you again.
Comment 4:
There are still some grammar errors, as well as long and poorly constructed sentences within the manuscript of the paper that should be carefully revised to arrive at a more technical and readable text. Some of these deficiencies have been provided in the following:
- Page 10: The phrase “CLARK analytical solution” must be changed to “Clark analytical solution” for more consistency with other parts of the paper as well as Ref. [32].
Answer: Thank you very much for the valuable suggestion, this problem was solved that is “CLARK analytical solution” must be changed to “Clark analytical solution”.
- Page 10: It seems that the phrase “the load is taken as a radial load of 200 kPa” is somewhat ambiguous! Do you mean “the only exerted load on the support structure is taken as a radially applied load of magnitude 200 kPa”? If this is the case, please proceed with improving that accordingly; otherwise, please revise that until arriving at a more readable phrase.
Answer: Thank you very much for the valuable suggestion, A radial load (p) of 200 kPa was applied to the structure in conjunction with the de-sign parameters from the field tests, and the parameters of the formulae and the structural diagram are shown in Fig. 8.
- Page 18, caption of Figure 16: The present caption of this figure, namely, “Figure 16. Monitoring results of measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure and (b) Hoop strain.” Must be changed to “Figure 16. Monitoring results of the measuring points: (a) Grouting pressure, (b) Hoop strain.” (including “the” and replacing “AND” between the captions of the two subfigures with a comma symbol (i.e., “,”), aiming at more consistency with the literature).
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 18, Figure 16: It is better to replace the existing y-label (i.e., “Microstrain (με)”) with “Strain (×10-6)”, aiming at more consistency with the current literature.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 18, first paragraph in Subsection 5.4: The phrase “pour concrete, until the monitoring” must be changed to “pour concrete until the monitoring” (omitting the unnecessary comma for better readability).
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 19: The phrase “numerical simulation and field test” must be changed to “numerical simulation, and field test”, since a comma has been missed in the earlier version.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 19: The phrase “thickness of the mold bag concrete and the excavation radius of the circular shaft” must be changed to “thickness of the mold bag concrete, and the excavation radius of the circular shaft”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 19: The phrase “majority of the external load” must be changed to “most of the external load” for more compatibility with the current technical literature.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 19: The sentence “The test shows that the grouting pressure is the most strength safety factor affecting the stress state of the steel corrugated plate.”, given in the item~4 of “Conclusions”, is somehow unreadable! To increase its readability, it is suggested to be replaced with the following one: “The experiment shows that grouting pressure is the strongest safety factor that affects the stress state of corrugated steel plate.”
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. All of the above issues are corrected by making corrections in the article, and the yellow font in various places in the article. The author will follow up with corrections to the language issues throughout the article.
Therefore, the authors of the paper are highly recommended to revise them appropriately in the next version, unless the paper is rejected by the Assistant Editor or Academic Editor.
My whole evaluation on this modified version of the work is 50/100. Without appropriate and methodical explaining the above-raised issues, I cannot recommend this paper for possible publication in Applied Sciences.
Round 3
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments on applsci-2649502-peer-review-v3 (Score: 60/100):
Thanks so much for the provided answers to the reviewer for the previous raised queries in the previous versions; however, the answers to some of them are still NOT satisfactory, and there exist some other major issues that should be resolved. Our goal is to produce a high-quality paper that meets the standards and requirements of the journal, and we will continue to work diligently towards achieving that goal. By this virtue, the authors are invited to carefully explain and clarify them in the responses and also in the paper’s manuscript for the last round of review from myside:
Comment 1:
The authors are strongly advised to pay close attention to some errors still present in the paper's English. It is crucial that the following issues are carefully reviewed and appropriately modified in the upcoming version of the paper:
- Page 18: The phrase “as a result of the ‘contralateral pouring’” must be changed to “as a result of the “contralateral pouring”” (using “” instead of ‘’).
- Page 17: The phrase “the second and third ring soil” must be modified to “the second and third rings soil”.
- Page 17: The phrase “second ring, and marked” must be changed to “second ring and marked” (no need to use comma before “and”; therefore, it should be eliminated).
- In the whole paper, there should be a free space between the given unit and the follower number or parameter. Therefore, on page 17, “200kPa” must be modified to “200 kPa.
- Page 1: “[6,7,8]” must be changed to “[6-8]”.
- Page 13: “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increases” must be modified to “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increase”.
- Page 13, first paragraph in Sect. 5: “Above simulation …” must be changed to “The above simulation…”.
- Page 13: The phrase “verify feasibility” must be modified to “verify the feasibility”.
- Page 13: The phrase “Steel corrugated plate-Mold bag concrete structure” must be modified to “steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete structure” for better spelling and more consistency with the surrounding texts.
- Page 13: The statement “used for field test” must be revised to “used for the field test”.
- Page 10, last paragraph: The phrase “have certain reference value” must be modified to “have certain reference values”.
- Page 10: The phrase “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore the results” must be changed to “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore, the results”.
- Page 9: The phrase “It is modelled” must be revised to “It is modeled”. In addition, throughout the paper, the verb “modelled” must be substituted by “modeled” for higher consistency.
- Page 11: The phrase “As shown in figure10” must be modified to “As shown in Figure10” or “As shown in Fig. 10” for the purpose of more consistency with the text of the manuscript.
- In most parts of the paper, the article “the” has been missed. For example, regarding the caption of Fig. 9, the statement “Schematic diagram of formula parameters” must be changed to “Schematic diagram of the formula parameters”.
-
Comment 2:
Regarding the potential applications of AI and DL algorithms in similar problems, the authors responded that their knowledge is insufficient. This can also be true of many of the works cited in this paper, as not all of them have been thoroughly studied by the authors, but parts of those works have helped the authors present this research. The main purpose of the aforementioned algorithms is to help us examine the problem more holistically and consider all influencing factors.
Therefore, with regard to the developed analytical approach in predicting the stress and deformations fields of the supporting structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete in this paper, the obtained results on the stress-thickness, and the above explanations, it is of great benefit to employ some deep-learning-based algorithms in examining the overall behavior of the structure. Therefore, the authors are highly advised to clarify this issue through explaining the following reference works (>4), which all of them display novel algorithms of this approach established by the investigators:
- Zhao, H., Ma, L. (2022). Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Wu J, Zhao E, Li S, Wang Y. (2022). Intelligent fitting global real‐time task scheduling strategy for high‐performance multi‐core systems.
- Abbas N, Umar T, Salih R, Akbar M, Hussain Z, Haibei X. (2023). Structural Health Monitoring of Underground Metro Tunnel by Identifying Damage Using ANN Deep Learning Auto-Encoder. Applied Sciences. 13(3):1332.
- Jiang T, Yang X, Yang Y, Chen X, Bi M, Chen J. (2022). Wavelet method optimised by ant colony algorithm used for extracting stable and unstable signals in intelligent substations.
- Chen J, Yu S, Wei W, Ma Y. (2022). Matrix‐based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multigranulation decision‐theoretic rough sets.
Comment 3:
No inclusive parametric studies have been performed on the role of the radius of the “steel corrugated panel” in the maximum stress and displacements. This means that only the effects of the panel’s thickness and the mold bag concrete’s thickness on the maximum stress and deformation have been studied. However, to arrive at a more complete design, investigation on the determination of the roles of other crucial factors, including radius and length (which is equal to the depth of the excavation) of the steel corrugated panel as the important geometry factors, as well as concrete strength as the important mechanical properties, have been not examined yet. In doing this, a more comprehensive model accounting for the composite action of the steel corrugated panel and the mold bag concrete may be required to be developed to reduce the computational efforts, or running many ABAQUS program to obtain the appropriate results.
Comment 4:
Appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms also play a significance role in solving engineering-based problems, particularly those associated with the structural engineering and structural mechanics. To address this, the authors are highly recommended to explain the following works (>3) in the paper as well:
- Deng Y, Zhang Y, Luo X, Lytton RL. (2021) Development of equivalent stationary dynamic loads for moving vehicular loads using artificial intelligence-based finite element model updating.
- Liu K, Liu B. Intelligent information-based construction in tunnel engineering based on the GA and CCGPR coupled algorithm. 2019;88:113-28.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. (2022). A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster.
- Hsiao, I. H., & Chung, C. Y. (2022). AI-infused semantic model to enrich and expand programming question generation
- Deng Y, Zeng Z, Jha K, Huang D. (2022). Problem-based cybersecurity lab with knowledge graph as guidance.
Please note that AI algorithms are used to making the predictions of fields of interest as much as more general, accurate, and rational. The above-introduced references are the basically the new developed algorithms, which will have great potential of application in various problems, particularly those of structural engineering.
Comment 5:
In the schematically presented diagram in Figure 8, the variation of the soil pressure along the longitudinal direction of the steel corrugated panel has been not properly displayed. As demonstrated in Fig. 4, the soil pressure has been considered to vary linearly in depth based on the Rankine model of active soil pressure and this should be appropriately taken into account in the analysis of the problem.
Comment 6:
One of the big assumptions in developing the analytical model is the applied pressure on the outer surface of the support structure has been considered constant along the depth (i.e., not varying along the support). For the case of longitudinally varying soil pressure, the common formulations used in the analytical model are not consistent with the varying soil pressure. In such a case, Love’s potential function should be used and the shear stress of “\sigma_{rz}” will be also generated in the structure, so its effect should be appropriately taken into account. The above explanations should be briefly provided in the paper, and the following work on the application of Love’s potential function in analytical investigating similar elasticity-based problems (microcell corrosion of steel reinforcement) should be explained:
- Kiani K, Shodja HM. Response of reinforced concrete structures to macrocell corrosion of reinforcements. Part I: Before propagation of microcracks via an analytical approach. Nuclear engineering and design.
After receiving your feedback and making the necessary modifications to the paper per the above comments, I will review it again. If there are any major issues remaining, I will provide my complementary comments to ensure that the paper meets the standards for publication in Applied Sciences. However, if all the requested modifications are properly applied and the paper meets the necessary criteria, I will be glad to recommend it for possible publication.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThe authors are strongly advised to pay close attention to some errors still present in the paper's English. It is crucial that the following issues are carefully reviewed and appropriately modified in the upcoming version of the paper:
- Page 18: The phrase “as a result of the ‘contralateral pouring’” must be changed to “as a result of the “contralateral pouring”” (using “” instead of ‘’).
- Page 17: The phrase “the second and third ring soil” must be modified to “the second and third rings soil”.
- Page 17: The phrase “second ring, and marked” must be changed to “second ring and marked” (no need to use comma before “and”; therefore, it should be eliminated).
- In the whole paper, there should be a free space between the given unit and the follower number or parameter. Therefore, on page 17, “200kPa” must be modified to “200 kPa.
- Page 1: “[6,7,8]” must be changed to “[6-8]”.
- Page 13: “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increases” must be modified to “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increase”.
- Page 13, first paragraph in Sect. 5: “Above simulation …” must be changed to “The above simulation…”.
- Page 13: The phrase “verify feasibility” must be modified to “verify the feasibility”.
- Page 13: The phrase “Steel corrugated plate-Mold bag concrete structure” must be modified to “steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete structure” for better spelling and more consistency with the surrounding texts.
- Page 13: The statement “used for field test” must be revised to “used for the field test”.
- Page 10, last paragraph: The phrase “have certain reference value” must be modified to “have certain reference values”.
- Page 10: The phrase “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore the results” must be changed to “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore, the results”.
- Page 9: The phrase “It is modelled” must be revised to “It is modeled”. In addition, throughout the paper, the verb “modelled” must be substituted by “modeled” for higher consistency.
- Page 11: The phrase “As shown in figure10” must be modified to “As shown in Figure10” or “As shown in Fig. 10” for the purpose of more consistency with the text of the manuscript.
In most parts of the paper, the article “the” has been missed. For example, regarding the caption of Fig. 9, the statement “Schematic diagram of formula parameters” must be changed to “Schematic diagram of the formula parameters”.
Author Response
Comments on applsci-2649502-peer-review-v3 (Score: 60/100):
Thanks so much for the provided answers to the reviewer for the previous raised queries in the previous versions; however, the answers to some of them are still NOT satisfactory, and there exist some other major issues that should be resolved. Our goal is to produce a high-quality paper that meets the standards and requirements of the journal, and we will continue to work diligently towards achieving that goal. By this virtue, the authors are invited to carefully explain and clarify them in the responses and also in the paper’s manuscript for the last round of review from myside:
Comment 1:
The authors are strongly advised to pay close attention to some errors still present in the paper's English. It is crucial that the following issues are carefully reviewed and appropriately modified in the upcoming version of the paper:
- Page 18: The phrase “as a result of the ‘contralateral pouring’” must be changed to “as a result of the “contralateral pouring”” (using “” instead of ‘’).
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 17: The phrase “the second and third ring soil” must be modified to “the second and third rings soil”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 17: The phrase “second ring, and marked” must be changed to “second ring and marked” (no need to use comma before “and”; therefore, it should be eliminated).
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- In the whole paper, there should be a free space between the given unit and the follower number or parameter. Therefore, on page 17, “200kPa” must be modified to “200 kPa.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. Similar issues throughout the text have been checked and corrected in the revised manuscript.
- Page 1: “[6,7,8]” must be changed to “[6-8]”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. Similar issues throughout the text have been checked and corrected in the revised manuscript.
- Page 13: “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increases” must be modified to “the depth and radius of the circular shaft excavation increase”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 13, first paragraph in Sect. 5: “Above simulation …” must be changed to “The above simulation…”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 13: The phrase “verify feasibility” must be modified to “verify the feasibility”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 13: The phrase “Steel corrugated plate-Mold bag concrete structure” must be modified to “steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete structure” for better spelling and more consistency with the surrounding texts.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 13: The statement “used for field test” must be revised to “used for the field test”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 10, last paragraph: The phrase “have certain reference value” must be modified to “have certain reference values”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 10: The phrase “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore the results” must be changed to “the accuracy of Eq. (6), therefore, the results”.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- Page 9: The phrase “It is modelled” must be revised to “It is modeled”. In addition, throughout the paper, the verb “modelled” must be substituted by “modeled” for higher consistency.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. Similar issues throughout the text have been checked and corrected in the revised manuscript.
- Page 11: The phrase “As shown in figure10” must be modified to “As shown in Figure10” or “As shown in Fig. 10” for the purpose of more consistency with the text of the manuscript.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, sorry for these mistakes. The English writing of the full text has been checked and modified in the revised manuscript.
- In most parts of the paper, the article “the” has been missed. For example, regarding the caption of Fig. 9, the statement “Schematic diagram of formula parameters” must be changed to “Schematic diagram of the formula parameters”.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. All of the above issues are corrected by making corrections in the article, and the yellow font in various places in the article. The author will follow up with corrections to the language issues throughout the article.
Comment 2:
Regarding the potential applications of AI and DL algorithms in similar problems, the authors responded that their knowledge is insufficient. This can also be true of many of the works cited in this paper, as not all of them have been thoroughly studied by the authors, but parts of those works have helped the authors present this research. The main purpose of the aforementioned algorithms is to help us examine the problem more holistically and consider all influencing factors.
Therefore, with regard to the developed analytical approach in predicting the stress and deformations fields of the supporting structure of steel corrugated plate-mold bag concrete in this paper, the obtained results on the stress-thickness, and the above explanations, it is of great benefit to employ some deep-learning-based algorithms in examining the overall behavior of the structure. Therefore, the authors are highly advised to clarify this issue through explaining the following reference works (>4), which all of them display novel algorithms of this approach established by the investigators:
- Zhao, H., Ma, L. (2022). Several rough set models in quotient space.
- Wu J, Zhao E, Li S, Wang Y. (2022). Intelligent fitting global real‐time task scheduling strategy for high‐performance multi‐core systems.
- Abbas N, Umar T, Salih R, Akbar M, Hussain Z, Haibei X. (2023). Structural Health Monitoring of Underground Metro Tunnel by Identifying Damage Using ANN Deep Learning Auto-Encoder. Applied Sciences. 13(3):1332.
- Jiang T, Yang X, Yang Y, Chen X, Bi M, Chen J. (2022). Wavelet method optimised by ant colony algorithm used for extracting stable and unstable signals in intelligent substations.
- Chen J, Yu S, Wei W, Ma Y. (2022). Matrix‐based method for solving decision domains of neighbourhood multigranulation decision‐theoretic rough sets.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, and I would like to apologize here. Due to my lack of knowledge, I still don't understand your suggestions about the potential role of AI and DL algorithms in similar problems. However, I have quoted the literature you proposed for my reference in the revised draft, please refer to the paragraph marked yellow in the introduction for details.
The intelligent algorithm you proposed is too difficult for me, and my current level cannot be applied in this paper, so I may modify the algorithm in this paper badly, please forgive me, thank you again for your guidance, I will learn more about the algorithm in the future, and strive to apply it in the following articles as soon as possible.
In addition, with the development of information technology, the intellectualization has been gradually applied to the field of civil engineering. There are many cases of using artificial intelligence algorithms as well as deep-learning-based algorithms to solve engineering problems especially in structural engineering and structural mechanics. For example, Deng et al. [26] proposed an AI-based FE model updating to determine equivalent stationary dynamic loads for moving loads by comparing and analyzing two fundamental AI algorithms and their improved algorithms, namely genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Liu [27] introduced a genetic algorithm (GA) and combined covariance-Gaussian process regression (CCGPR) coupling algorithm (GA-CCGPR) for information-based construction in tunneling engineering and proposed an optimization method for the preliminary support parameters based on it. Besides, Nadeem et al. [28] proposed a deep learning-based research method for damage identification for underground metro shield tunnels by utilizing an existing deep auto-encoder (DAE) that can support deep neural networks. Shi et al. [29] used the support vector machine (SVM) information granulation method to predict the surrounding rock deformation. Therefore, the use of some deep-learning-based algorithms to study the overall behavior of the structure is of great benefit and it can be seen that these intelligent techniques are promising for future engineering applications.
Comment 3:
No inclusive parametric studies have been performed on the role of the radius of the “steel corrugated panel” in the maximum stress and displacements. This means that only the effects of the panel’s thickness and the mold bag concrete’s thickness on the maximum stress and deformation have been studied. However, to arrive at a more complete design, investigation on the determination of the roles of other crucial factors, including radius and length (which is equal to the depth of the excavation) of the steel corrugated panel as the important geometry factors, as well as concrete strength as the important mechanical properties, have been not examined yet. In doing this, a more comprehensive model accounting for the composite action of the steel corrugated panel and the mold bag concrete may be required to be developed to reduce the computational efforts, or running many ABAQUS program to obtain the appropriate results.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. As stated by the reviewer, parametric studies for structures do neglect the role of the radius of the corrugated steel plate in the maximum stresses and displacements. The focus of this paper is on the rationality of the new support structure and the feasibility of the construction process, so only the safety of the structure is considered in the numerical simulation, and the 2D model of the parametric analysis is indeed considered relatively simple. Thanks again to the reviewers for their comments, and in subsequent work the authors will be analysing the structure parametrically in a number of ways, including the radius of the corrugated steel plate and the strength of the concrete, among others.
Comment 4:
Appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms also play a significance role in solving engineering-based problems, particularly those associated with the structural engineering and structural mechanics. To address this, the authors are highly recommended to explain the following works (>3) in the paper as well:
- Deng Y, Zhang Y, Luo X, Lytton RL. (2021) Development of equivalent stationary dynamic loads for moving vehicular loads using artificial intelligence-based finite element model updating.
- Liu K, Liu B. Intelligent information-based construction in tunnel engineering based on the GA and CCGPR coupled algorithm. 2019;88:113-28.
- Hu, X., Kuang, Q., Cai, Q., Xue, Y., Zhou, W., Li, Y. (2022). A coherent pattern mining algorithm based on all contiguous column bicluster.
- Hsiao, I. H., & Chung, C. Y. (2022). AI-infused semantic model to enrich and expand programming question generation
- Deng Y, Zeng Z, Jha K, Huang D. (2022). Problem-based cybersecurity lab with knowledge graph as guidance.
Please note that AI algorithms are used to making the predictions of fields of interest as much as more general, accurate, and rational. The above-introduced references are the basically the new developed algorithms, which will have great potential of application in various problems, particularly those of structural engineering.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments, and I would like to apologize here. Due to my lack of knowledge, I still don't understand your suggestions about the potential role of AI and DL algorithms in similar problems. However, I have quoted the literature you proposed for my reference in the revised draft, please refer to the paragraph marked yellow in the introduction for details.
The intelligent algorithm you proposed is too difficult for me, and my current level cannot be applied in this paper, so I may modify the algorithm in this paper badly, please forgive me, thank you again for your guidance, I will learn more about the algorithm in the future, and strive to apply it in the following articles as soon as possible.
Comment 5:
In the schematically presented diagram in Figure 8, the variation of the soil pressure along the longitudinal direction of the steel corrugated panel has been not properly displayed. As demonstrated in Fig. 4, the soil pressure has been considered to vary linearly in depth based on the Rankine model of active soil pressure and this should be appropriately taken into account in the analysis of the problem.
Answer: Thanks so much for your suggestion. Figure 8 is just a schematic representation of each parameter in the stress solution equation for a circular tunnel with corrugated plates derived for Clark. The absence of variation of soil pressure along the longitudinal direction of the corrugated plate in the figure is to facilitate the subsequent verification of the accuracy of the simulation results of the numerical model. The subsequent practical modelling calculations then take full account of the linear variation of the earth pressure loads in the depth direction.
Comment 6:
One of the big assumptions in developing the analytical model is the applied pressure on the outer surface of the support structure has been considered constant along the depth (i.e., not varying along the support). For the case of longitudinally varying soil pressure, the common formulations used in the analytical model are not consistent with the varying soil pressure. In such a case, Love’s potential function should be used and the shear stress of “\sigma_{rz}” will be also generated in the structure, so its effect should be appropriately taken into account. The above explanations should be briefly provided in the paper, and the following work on the application of Love’s potential function in analytical investigating similar elasticity-based problems (microcell corrosion of steel reinforcement) should be explained:
- Kiani K, Shodja HM. Response of reinforced concrete structures to macrocell corrosion of reinforcements. Part I: Before propagation of microcracks via an analytical approach. Nuclear engineering and design.
After receiving your feedback and making the necessary modifications to the paper per the above comments, I will review it again. If there are any major issues remaining, I will provide my complementary comments to ensure that the paper meets the standards for publication in Applied Sciences. However, if all the requested modifications are properly applied and the paper meets the necessary criteria, I will be glad to recommend it for possible publication.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments.
