Safety Threshold Determination for Blasting Vibration of the Lining in Existing Tunnels under Adjacent Tunnel Blasting

The effects of tunnel blast excavation on the lining structures of adjacent tunnels are comprehensively studied for the Xinling highway tunnel project. First, the LS-DYNA software is applied to obtain the characteristics of vibration velocities and dynamic stresses at different positions of the tunnel liner. The results indicate that the maximum peak particle velocity (PPV) is located on the haunch of the lining facing the blasting source and that the PPV and peak tensile stress decrease with the increase in the surrounding rock grade. Second, a site test on blasting vibration is conducted to verify the simulation results. By using regression analysis of the measured vibration data, the calculation method of maximum charge per delay for optimizing blasting excavation under different surrounding rock grades is obtained. Finally, based on the statistical relationship between crack alteration and PPV on the lining before and after blasting, the safety thresholds of PPV for different portions of the tunnel are determined. The recommended safety threshold of PPV is 10 cm/s for intact lining and for B-grade and V-grade linings of the surrounding rock tunnel. However, if the lining crack grade falls between 1A and B, then the recommended safety thresholds of PPV for the III-grade and IV-grade surrounding rock tunnel are 5 cm/s and 6 cm/s, respectively. The threshold PPV proposed in this study has been successfully applied to restrict blast-induced damage during new tunnel excavation of the Xinling tunnel project.