Design of tunnel linings in a creeping rock

Summary The effect of long term rock deformation on lining pressure is considered using different concepts of rock behaviour. These include the conventional characteristic-line or convergence-confinement method, modified to allow for rock ageing, and lining-rock interaction methods using models of linear-viscoelastic, linear-elastic linear viscous, and linear elastic non-linear viscous rock behaviour. Calculations of lining pressures show that the former tends to underestimate, compared with the latter.This paper was presented at the 28th US Symposium on Rock Mechanics in Tucson, Arizona, July 1987.