A Study on Current Extent of Damage of Road Tunnel Lining in Cold Regions (Gangwon-do)

Abstract

: Due to low annual average temperature, road tunnel lining in domestic cold region (Gangwon province) experiences durability problems. The financial and human damage due to cracks, breakout, exfoliation and water leakage increases every year. However, domestic research on effect of temperature on road tunnel lining damage is insufficient. Thus, this research has investigated 70 tunnels located in cold region (Gangwon-do) to analyze damage status. Furthermore, by contrasting damage on tunnels in relatively warm Gangneung area with those in relatively cold Hongcheon area, the effect of temperature on road tunnel lining damage was analyzed.

Freezing Damage to Tunnels in Cold Regions and Weights of Influencing Factors

“…As shown in Figure 1, the common freezing damage phenomena, environmental types, and occurrence locations of tunnels in cold regions are shown in Table 1. The types and characteristics of freezing damage are summarized based on typical cold area engineering cases: (1) The freezing damage is divided into three categories in cold regions, specifically, the freezing damage of seepage and hanging ice, the freezing damage to the lining interface, and the freezing damage to the tunnel foundation [11].…”

“…These studies are used to guide antifreeze measures for tunnels, but there are still problems including: (1) Most of the previous research took a specific project in the cold regions as the research object and put forward targeted antifreeze measures. This method has obvious limitations due to the influence of different geological conditions on different tunnel projects [8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. (2) When analyzing the causes of freezing damage, these studies were mainly based on the existing engineering experience and lacked quantitative evaluation of the impact of various factors on the extent of freezing damage, which resulted in a significant limitation when they were used to guide the construction of other engineering projects [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Recent Progress in the Cracking Mechanism and Control Measures of Tunnel Lining Cracking under the Freeze–Thaw Cycle

“…In addition, the tunnel needs to be constantly maintained and repaired due to lining cracking, which not only affects the normal operation of the tunnel, but also requires labor and material resources for maintenance, which is obviously contrary to the original purpose of tunnel construction. Therefore, the cracks of tunnel lining structure under freezing-thawing cycles began to attract people's attention [11][12][13]. Cracking of the lining will cause instability of the lining structure, reduced safety and reliability, smaller tunnel headroom, tunnel leakage, and if the cracking expands further, it will produce lining off blocks or even sudden collapse, seriously threatening the safety of pedestrians and vehicles [9,10].…”

“…In addition, the tunnel needs to be constantly maintained and repaired due to lining cracking, which not only affects the normal operation of the tunnel, but also requires labor and material resources for maintenance, which is obviously contrary to the original purpose of tunnel construction. Therefore, the cracks of tunnel lining structure under freezing-thawing cycles began to attract people's attention [11][12][13].…”