Numerical Simulation and Field Monitoring of Blasting Vibration for Tunnel In-Situ Expansion by a Non-Cut Blast Scheme

There have been ever more in-situ tunnel extension projects due to the growing demand for transportation. The traditional blast scheme requires a large quantity of explosive and the vibration effect is hard to control. In order to reduce explosive consumption and the vibration effect, an optimized non-cut blast scheme was proposed and applied to the in-situ expansion of the Gushan Tunnel. Refined numerical simulation was adopted to compare the traditional and optimized blast schemes. The vibration attenuation within the interlaid rock mass and the vibration effect on the adjacent tunnel were studied and compared. The simulation results were validated by the field monitoring of the vibration effect on the adjacent tunnel. Both the simulation and the monitoring results showed that the vibration velocity on the adjacent tunnel's back side was much smaller than its counterpart on the blast side, i.e., the presence of cavity reduced the blasting vibration effect significantly. The optimized non-cut blast scheme, which effectively utilized the existing free surface, could reduce the explosive consumption and vibration effect significantly, and might be preferred for in-situ tunnel expansion projects.