A methodology for evaluation and classification of rock mass quality on tunnel engineering

In this paper a new methodology for evaluation and classification of rock mass quality that can be applied to rock tunneling is presented. An evaluation model based on combing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) for assessing the rock mass rating is the main procedure. This research treats rock mass classification as a group decision problem, and applies the fuzzy logic theory as the criterion to calculate the weighting of factors. The main advantage of this procedure is that it can effectively change the weighting of each rating parameter with the variation of geological conditions. The proposed method was evaluated and applied to the actual cases that are the two tunnels along the Second Northern Highway around Taipei area in Taiwan, namely Mu-Zha and Hsin-Tien tunnels. It was found that the determined results were in a good agreement with the original data assessed by the RMR. Results of the analyses show that it can be provided a more quantitative measure of rock mass and hence minimize judgmental bias. The proposed method should be more feasible for future tunnel construction and for suggestions of tunnel support design in the geological area of Taiwan.