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Modern tunnels in hard rock are usually constructed by drill and blast with the rock reinforced by shotcrete (sprayed concrete) in combination with rock bolts. The irregular rock surface and the projection method of shotcrete lead to a tunnel lining of varying thickness with unevenly distributed stresses that affect the risk of cracking during shrinkage of the young and hardening material. Depending on water conditions, shotcrete is sprayed directly either onto the rock surface or over a drainage system, creating a fully restrained or an end-restrained structural system. In this paper, a method for nonlinear numerical simulations has been demonstrated, for the study of differences in stress build-up and cracking behaviour of restrained shotcrete slabs subjected to shrinkage. Special focus was given to the effects of the irregular shape and varying thickness of the shotcrete. The effects of glass fibre reinforcement and bond were implemented in the study by changing the fracture energy in bending and in the interaction between shotcrete and the substrate. The study verifies that an end-restrained shotcrete slab is prone to shrinkage induced cracking and shows the importance of a continuous bond to avoid wide shrinkage cracks when shotcrete is sprayed directly onto the rock.

Abstract. Civil infrastructures, such as tunnels and bridges, are directly related to the overall economic and demographic growth of countries. The aging of these infrastructures increases the probability of catastrophic failures that results in loss of lives and high repair costs; all over the world, these factors drive the need for advanced infrastructure monitoring systems. For these reasons, in the last years, different types of devices and innovative infrastructure monitoring techniques have been investigated to automate the process and overcome the main limitation of standard visual inspections that are used nowadays. This paper presents some preliminary findings of an ongoing research project, named TACK, that combines advanced deep learning techniques and innovative photogrammetric algorithms to develop a monitoring system. Specifically, the project focuses on the development of an automatic procedure for crack detection and measurement using images of tunnels and bridges acquired with a mobile mapping system. In this paper, some preliminary results are shown to investigate the potential of a deep learning algorithm in detecting cracks occurred in concrete material. The model is a CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) based on the U-Net architecture; in this study, we tested the transferability of the model that has been trained on a small available labeled dataset and tested on a large set of images acquired using a customized mobile mapping system. The results have shown that it is possible to effectively detect cracks in unseen imagery and that the primary source of errors is the false positive detection of crack-like objects (i.e., contact wires, cables and tile borders).

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Abstract. Shotcrete (sprayed concrete) is commonly used to support tunnels in good quality hard rock. Including a drainage system often results in end-restrained sections of shotcrete, which have created problems with shrinkage induced cracking. In this paper a multi-physical material model with coupled behaviour between thermal actions, moisture transportation and mechanical strain has been used to model and describe the complex behaviour and effects of shrinkage of such a structure. The model was first calibrated against a free shrinkage test and then used to simulate an experimental setup for testing of end-restrained shrinkage. The first results lead to a need of tuning of the parameters controlling the drying of the shotcrete to accurately describe the experimental results. This tuning could be an indication that the shrinkage behaviour differs between a restrained and an un-restrained sample. However, further research about possible changes in the pore structure as well as more detailed measurements of the early shrinkage behaviour is needed before any such conclusions can be drawn.

Tunnels in hard, jointed rock are commonly reinforced with shotcrete (sprayed concrete) applied directly on the irregular rock surface. The thickness for such linings can be as small as 50 mm, which result in a fast drying. The resulting shrinkage of the restrained lining is a well-known phenomenon, which leads to cracking. The installation of drainage systems also results in an end-restrained shotcrete lining that is more prone to shrinkage cracking. The drying process is a complex problem that depends on multiple factors such as cement content, porosity and ambient air conditions (i.e. temperature, relative humidity and wind speed). Two numerical models capable of capturing the structural effects of drying shrinkage were compared in this study. It was found that inclusion of non-linear drying shrinkage is important for accurately describing crack initiation in an end-restrained shotcrete slab. The best fit to the experimental data was obtained when the rate of drying was described as a non-linear decreasing function.

During the construction of a rock tunnel in Stockholm, several sections with leaching shotcrete (sprayed concrete) were found one year after the spraying was completed. An investigation was therefore conducted, and its results are presented in this paper. The amount of leaching after such a short time indicated that a one-sided water pressure existed in combination with a permeable shotcrete. The reason for the water pressure was likely a partly unsuccessful grouting that created sections with leaking water. The permeable shotcrete could be a combined result of insufficient curing and the use of accelerators, and the effect of in-situ curing was therefore investigated. A total of six slabs were sprayed and cured under different conditions in the tunnel. Test results according to standards indicated that curing has no significant effect on the development of mechanical strength or water penetration through the shotcrete. However, this is believed to be a result of the test method rather than the non-existing effect of curing. Lastly, some modifications to the test standard were proposed for future studies of in-situ curing.