Numerical Analysis of Tunnelling Effects on Mat Foundation Behaviour in Jointed Anisotropic Rock

Numerical Analysis of Tunnelling Effects on Mat Foundation Behaviour in Jointed Anisotropic Rock | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Numerical Analysis of Tunnelling Effects on Mat Foundation Behaviour in Jointed Anisotropic Rock Saba I Jawad, Hassan Obaid Abbas, Ghassan Khalaf Khalid This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9530301/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 18 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The present and future prospects of infrastructural development inevitably move towards underground structures. Tunnelling plays an important role in underground infrastructure projects. The complexity of these projects increases with jointed or fractured rock. The presence of discontinuities in rocks is common. This discontinuity may be a joint, fault, fold, infilling weak rock, or any other type of anisotropy. These discontinuities lead to uncertainties and failures in underground excavations. The most common type of discontinuity in the field is the presence of joints, which significantly affect the stress and deformation behaviour of the rock mass. Joints mostly occur as joint sets, which are usually parallel and equally spaced, and can also occur in multiple sets. It is difficult to estimate the properties of fractured rock masses owing to their complexity. Even the parameters obtained from expensive, large-scale in-situ tests for jointed rock masses have limited reliability owing to the variability of field conditions over large areas. In the last few decades, extensive research on jointed rock mass has been conducted with a large leap in the arrival of numerical techniques with high-speed computers. The present study primarily investigated the deformation and stress responses of raft foundations and tunnels under different joint conditions during tunneling. A comparison of the responses to a joint set was also performed. The results showed that active stress conditions occurred at the top and bottom of the tunnel, whereas passive conditions occurred on the lateral sides. The influence of tunnel progress on the stress distribution vanishes at X/D = 2. Rock Anisotropic Tunneling Foundation Finite element Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 15 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 08 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 06 May, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 28 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 28 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 26 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9530301","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":637227906,"identity":"0223fb28-0207-4311-a170-e17a17eb396b","order_by":0,"name":"Saba I Jawad","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHgjFxt588MEHMINYLXw8x5INZ4C0MBOrRU4ix0wazCakRb797MEPDBV37NokcgykbX5tk+djZmD88DEHtxaDM3nJEgxnniW38TwrMM7tu23YxszALDlzGx4tDDkGEoxth5PZ2JM3JOf23GYEamFj5sWjRb7/jfEPxn9ALQwJBocte27bE9TCcCPHTIKx4bAdG0eKYTPDj9uJBLUY3HiXZpFw7HACGzCQGXsbbie3MTM24/WLfH/u4Rsfag7by7c3H//x489t2/ntzQc/fMTnMBBIYGBIbAAxGNvAZAMB9RBgD6H+EKV4FIyCUTAKRhgAAEvrUd1YWI/rAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bilad Alrafidain","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Saba","middleName":"I","lastName":"Jawad","suffix":""},{"id":637227907,"identity":"f1204598-119d-4292-9bbd-0b75f935e5f6","order_by":1,"name":"Hassan Obaid Abbas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Diyala","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hassan","middleName":"Obaid","lastName":"Abbas","suffix":""},{"id":637227908,"identity":"d7bbb727-05bc-4ceb-aebc-0f2bfc8f235a","order_by":2,"name":"Ghassan Khalaf Khalid","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bilad Alrafidain","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ghassan","middleName":"Khalaf","lastName":"Khalid","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-26 08:08:41","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9530301/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9530301/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":109248212,"identity":"b0d12e06-3bb1-4821-880c-4171d2de6c7e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 08:36:24","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":560861,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"NumericalAnalysisofTunnelingEffectsonMatFoundationBehaviorinJointedAnisotropicRock.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9530301/v1_covered_fff9b579-e7cf-4e59-a687-848d3343c97d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Numerical Analysis of Tunnelling Effects on Mat Foundation Behaviour in Jointed Anisotropic Rock","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-materials","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"dime","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Materials](https://www.springer.com/journal/43939)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Materials","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Rock, Anisotropic, Tunneling, Foundation, Finite element","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9530301/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9530301/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe present and future prospects of infrastructural development inevitably move towards underground structures. Tunnelling plays an important role in underground infrastructure projects. The complexity of these projects increases with jointed or fractured rock. The presence of discontinuities in rocks is common. This discontinuity may be a joint, fault, fold, infilling weak rock, or any other type of anisotropy. These discontinuities lead to uncertainties and failures in underground excavations. The most common type of discontinuity in the field is the presence of joints, which significantly affect the stress and deformation behaviour of the rock mass. Joints mostly occur as joint sets, which are usually parallel and equally spaced, and can also occur in multiple sets. It is difficult to estimate the properties of fractured rock masses owing to their complexity. Even the parameters obtained from expensive, large-scale in-situ tests for jointed rock masses have limited reliability owing to the variability of field conditions over large areas. 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