Design of a Displacement Monitoring System Based on Optical Grating and Numerical Verification in Geomechanical Model Test of Water Leakage of Tunnel

The displacement monitoring of surrounding rock is necessary in geomechanical model test. However, traditional monitoring technology is difficult to meet the needs of displacement monitoring in small geological model tests. To solve the problems mentioned above, the authors developed a multi-point displacement monitoring system based on optical grating including multi-point extensometer, grating scale and multi-channel data acquisition system. Firstly, 3D anchor head with six barbs is designed and connected to the grating ruler by the steel wire, which proved to be rather sensitive to the rock deformation. Additionally, the displacement data collected can be transformed into electrical signal, which can be obtained by multi-channel acquisition system. Finally, the system was used in the model test of tunnel water leakage. The designed anchors were pre-embedded in some key monitoring points around the section in order to investigate measurement of displacements in the lining during the loading of geostress and hydraulic pressure. Afterward, FLAC^3D, the finite-difference method, is adopted to simulate the whole process of physical model test and to compare with the experimental results. The results show that the experimental data was in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. In conclusion, the multi-point displacement monitoring system based on optical grating has higher precision and can be widely used in the physical model test of geotechnical engineering.