Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Problems in the Design and Construction of Underground Buildings—2nd Edition

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Structures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1162

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi'an 710061, China
Interests: stress waves propagation in jointed rock mass; mechanical properties and damage characteristics of discontinuous rock mass; engineering rock disaster prevention and mitigation; dynamic response of underground structure; mechanical properties of reinforced loess
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Guest Editor
Institution of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
Interests: static and dynamic constitutive model of rock materials; mechanical properties of rock materials; stability of slope and landslide; dynamic response and mechanical mechanism analysis of underground rock engineering; numerical calculation and finite element programming
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Guest Editor
National Inland Waterway Regulation Engineering Research Center, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China
Interests: rock damage mechanics; surrounding rock stability control; dynamic response of underground structure; soil interacts with structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Interests: loess mechanics; soil structural characteristics; loess foundation-superstructure interaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This research topic is Volume Ⅱ of a series.  The previous volumes can be found here:

Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Problems in the Design and Construction of Underground Buildings

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings/special_issues/OO8DGP0W81

The fact that underground engineering is located or partially located below the surface determines that the geotechnical problems of underground engineering can involve the whole life cycle of underground engineering, including site selection, planning, investigation, design, construction, use, maintenance, transformation, reinforcement, demolition, and restoration. At present, the construction schemes of underground engineering are classified into the open excavation method, shallow buried excavation method, cover excavation method, drilling and blasting method, roadheader method, shield method, pipe jacking method, buried pipe section method, caisson method, trenchless technology scheme, and so on. For underground engineering, geomechanics and geotechnical problems have the whole process, extensive and particularity.

The first edition of the Special Issue "Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Problems in the Design and Construction of Underground Buildings" received more than 30 submissions, and 18 professional manuscripts were been published, with contributions from all over the world. The topics of the first edition cover deep foundation excavation and the supports, mechanical properties, and engineering applications of pile foundation, rock and soil dynamic properties, close underground engineering, special foundation mechanical characteristics and constitutive models, damage mechanical properties of rock and soil mass in complex environments, mechanical problems in composite foundation, and special construction methods of underground structures. To some extent, these papers reflect the direction of development in the field. At the end of the first edition of this Special Issue, many suggestions were received from fellow scholars hoping to continue the theme. Therefore, in consultation with the editorial department, a second edition has been initiated.

The second edition of this Special Issue, titled "Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Problems in the Design and Construction of Underground Buildings—2nd Edition", will accept manuscripts covering a wide range of topics, from basic research to more applied exploration and comprehensive case studies.  Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Interaction between soil and structures;
  2. Safety and stability of underground structures;
  3. Earthquake resistance of underground structures;
  4. Mechanical properties and constitutive models of engineering rock, soil, or concrete materials;
  5. Geotechnical engineering problems in underground engineering construction;
  6. Geotechnical properties and engineering applications under regional or special environment;
  7. Stress wave propagation and attenuation law in rock and soil mass;
  8. Theory and technology of rock breaking by explosion and dynamic load;
  9. Response and disaster mechanisms of underground engineering under engineering disturbance;
  10. Engineering geological problems in complex environments;
  11. Treatment and reinforcement of special soil;
  12. Digital twin technology in underground engineering;
  13. Other topics.

Dr. Shaobo Chai
Dr. Yongqiang Zhou
Dr. Erdi Abi
Dr. Longlong Lv
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • underground building engineering
  • rock and soil mechanics
  • geotechnical engineering
  • seismic resistance of underground structure
  • mechanical property
  • regional geological environment
  • seismic response

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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20 pages, 7672 KiB  
Article
Stability Analysis of the Surrounding Rock of Deep Underground Engineering Under the Action of Thermal-Solid Coupling
by Xiaoyu Dou, Hongbin Shi, Yanbo Qing, Jiaqi Guo and Lipan Cheng
Buildings 2025, 15(9), 1500; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091500 - 29 Apr 2025
Abstract
When developing deep subsurface infrastructure in areas with intense geothermal activity, the significant temperature gradient inevitably leads to low-temperature contraction and high-temperature expansion of the rock body, resulting in changes in the rock’s mechanical properties. These thermodynamic effects can easily lead to the [...] Read more.
When developing deep subsurface infrastructure in areas with intense geothermal activity, the significant temperature gradient inevitably leads to low-temperature contraction and high-temperature expansion of the rock body, resulting in changes in the rock’s mechanical properties. These thermodynamic effects can easily lead to the destabilization and subsequent collapse of the rock. There exists a pressing necessity to methodically evaluate the surrounding rock stability encountered in deep underground engineering under the action of thermal-solid coupling. This study constructed a multi-physical field coupling nonlinear calculation model based on a high-precision three-dimensional finite difference method, systematically analyzed the interdependent effects between the original rock temperature and excavation-induced disturbance, and then analyzed the dynamic changes in temperature, stress, and displacement fields along with plastic zone of surrounding rock of the deep underground engineering under thermal-solid coupling. The results indicate that the closer to the excavation contour surface, the lower the surrounding rock temperature, while the temperature gradient increased correspondingly. The farther away from the excavation contour face, the closer the temperature was to the original rock temperature. As the original rock temperature climbed from 30 °C to 90 °C, the increment of vault displacement was 2.45 times that of arch bottom displacement, and the influence of temperature change on vault deformation was more significant. The horizontal displacement magnitudes at the different original temperatures followed the following order: sidewall > spandrel > skewback, and at an original rock temperature of 90 °C, the sidewall horizontal displacement reached 15.31 cm. With the elevation of the original rock temperature, the distribution range and concentration degree of the maximum and minimum principal stresses increased obviously, and both were compression-dominated. The types of plastic zones in the surrounding rock were mainly characterized by shear stress-induced yielding and tensile stress-induced damage failure. When the original rock temperature increased to 90 °C, the rock mass extending up to 1.5 m from the excavation contour surface formed a large area of damage zone. The closer the working face was to the monitoring section, the faster the temperature dropped, and the displacement changed in the monitoring section. The findings offer a theoretical basis for engineering practice, and it is of great significance to ensure the safety of the project. Full article
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33 pages, 22496 KiB  
Article
The Stability of Slopes and Building Structures Using an Energy Visualization Procedure
by Yi Yao, Jianjun Zhang, Xiaoyong Li, Yiliang Tu and Zuliang Zhong
Buildings 2024, 14(12), 3705; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14123705 - 21 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 658
Abstract
Many building structures in the southwest of China are constructed on slopes due to its mountainous terrain characteristics. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately study the stability of slopes and building structures during the construction and operation stages. Traditional numerical simulation methods for [...] Read more.
Many building structures in the southwest of China are constructed on slopes due to its mountainous terrain characteristics. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately study the stability of slopes and building structures during the construction and operation stages. Traditional numerical simulation methods for slope stability often analyze from the perspectives of stress and strain. However, due to the complex changes in stress and strain inside the slope, the traditional methods are not only complex but also result in some errors. The slope failure is essentially a procedure of energy transformation, dissipation, and mutation. Therefore, the slope stability can be analyzed more effectively from the perspective of energy changes. In this paper, an energy field visualization procedure is developed and applied to analyze the failure mechanism of slopes. First, the energy calculation principle of slopes was derived based on the principle of thermodynamics. Then, FLAC3D7.0 was used to develop the energy visualization procedure for slope. It was applied to a classical two-dimensional slope to calculate the safety factor of slopes and then compared with the traditional methods. Finally, the procedure was applied to two practical slopes and building structure engineering cases to study their stability and provide suggestions for practical construction. The research results show that the energy visualization procedure can correctly simulate the energy evolution principle in the procedure of slope failure. The sudden change of energy can be used to determine the safety factor and sliding surface of slopes. The error of the slope safety factor calculated by this procedure is only 0.02, indicating that the procedure is correct. The deformation and failure of slopes are essentially driven by energy. There are corresponding relationships between the energy stability stage and the slope equilibrium stage, the energy dissipation stage and the slope deformation stage, and the energy mutation stage and the slope failure stage. The preferred backfill scheme of high-fill slope engineering is one with less variation in gravitational potential energy and a greater increase in elastic strain energy. Pile foundation and building structure are effective methods to increase slope stability. Therefore, the energy visualization procedure developed in this paper can more intuitively and accurately analyze the stability of slopes and building structures. Full article
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