Zonal disintegration phenomenon in enclosing rock mass surrounding deep tunnels—Elasto-plastic analysis of stress field of enclosing rock mass

The zonal disintegration phenomenon (ZDP) is a typical phenomenon in deep block rock masses. In order to investigate the mechanism of ZDP, an improved non-linear Hoek-Brown strength criterion and a bi-linear constitutive model of rock mass were used to analyze the elasto-plastic stress field of the enclosing rock mass around a deep round tunnel. The radius of the plastic region and stress of the enclosing rock mass were obtained by introducing dimensionless parameters of radial distance. The results show that tunneling in deep rock mass causes a maximum stress zone to appear in the vicinity of the boundary of the elastic and the plastic zone in the surrounding rock mass. Under the compression of a large tangential force and a small radial force, the rock mass in the maximum stress zone was in an approximate uniaxial loading state, which could lead to a split failure in the rock mass.