Published: Građevinar 52 (2000) 8
Paper type: Preliminary report
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Use of limit state principles in tunnel construction

Starting from the fact that the structural analysis of the tunnel support and underground rooms is unreliable, the author describes the proposal of an inverse procedure in accordance with Eurocode 7. According to this procedure, the load is exerted on the rock at the boundary of the opening by reactive forces that can be produced by the support work. It is emphasized that builders must also verify whether the rock meets relevant failure criteria. It is shown that the solution may be reached by applying the finite-element method, finite difference method or, to simplify the procedure, the boundary element method.