Recent Research on Tunneling and Underground Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

Tunnels and underground projects are an effective and direct way to expand land use space, reduce population congestion, ease traffic, and improve urban ecological environment. The vigorous development of underground space has become an inevitable trend of urban development. Currently, tunnels and underground projects have presented characteristics such as micro-deformation, small spacing, large cross-section, large burial depth, high precision, long distance, ultra-large scale, etc. Constructions are often influenced by the geotechnical engineering problems of hydrology and groundwater, underground geotechnical stability, and urban area safety, which seriously restrict the development and utilization of urban underground space, and even lay serious safety hazards for the construction of tunnels and underground projects. In particular, the high-stress surrounding rock of deeply buried tunnels is highly susceptible to collapse, rock explosion, and sudden water and mud, which not only seriously endangers the lives of people and equipment but also interferes with the construction schedule. Therefore, further research is needed from various related aspects, such as tunnel and underground engineering mechanics models, rock deformation process simulation, surrounding rock monitoring and support, etc.

In recent years, various research methods from theoretical, experimental, and numerical perspectives have been proposed to solve the three major technical problems of "water, soft rock and unpredictable deformation", effectively promoting the research progress in the field of tunneling and underground engineering. However, there are still large gaps in tunneling and underground engineering research due to the complex stress field‒temperature, field‒seepage, and field‒chemical field coupling relationships in the rock mass of tunnels and underground engineering.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together papers on different topics related to risk assessment, disaster prediction, advance warning, destabilization control, and post-disaster reconstruction in tunneling and underground engineering, such as three-dimensional similar model tests, multi-field coupled mechanics analytical models, and their engineering applications. Submissions relating to theory, experiments, techniques, numerical methods, and engineering projects are all welcomed, including both original research and review articles.

Prof. Dr. Hang Lin
Guest Editor

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