The safety distance of a tunnel under-traversing a slope body with a landslide-prone zone

At present, substantial scientific research achievements have been made in the research on landslide occurrence, movement mechanism, mitigation measures, and structural stability during tunnel excavation. However, the interaction mechanism of a tunnel under-traversing a slope body with potential landslides is still not well understood. Based on the field data provided by previous investigations in the study area, six sets of 1:100 laboratory experiment model tests were conducted to study the stability of the landslide-prone zone of the slope body with an under-traversing tunnel. The selected distances between the tunnel and the sliding surface are 1.5, 3, and 5 times of the tunnel diameter, respectively. The experiment results show the interaction between the landslide-prone zone and the tunnel, elucidating the effect of potential landslides during the tunnel excavation process and the reaction of the landslide slip on the tunnel structure. Several conclusions are obtained: ① During the process of tunnel excavation, the vertical displacement of the tunnel vault decreases with the increase of the buried depth. ② The vertical displacement of the sliding surface increases with the increase of the buried depth of the tunnel. The horizontal displacement of sliding surface decreases with the increase of the buried depth. ③ After the occurrence of a rainfall-induced landslide, the vertical displacement of the tunnel vault in the 1.5-diameter-distance case is 57.29% greater than that in the 3.0-dismeter-distance case.④ For a two-cave tunnel, it is suggested that the cave farther from the landslide toe should be firstly excavated since it may generate less structural deformation.