The Development of Underground Projects in Urban Areas

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the rapid developments of techniques in underground projects, tunneling through heterogeneous and discontinuous geo-materials is still rather complicated and problematic, especially for urban areas. For instance, irregular inclusions and complex joint morphology are hard to quantify and replicate in numerical and physical analysis, which may lead to a rough estimation of mechanical properties of geo-materials. In addition, underground projects in urban areas usually cross stratums with adverse geological conditions, excessive settlement, structure damage or water leakage, all of which occur frequently, greatly weakening the safety and durability of underground projects.

Therefore, appropriate treatments are urgently needed to improve the mechanical properties of surrounding rocks and control the deformations and damages of underground structures. The aim of this Special Issue, entitled “The Development of Underground Projects in Urban Areas” is to gather original fundamental and applied research related to the numerical models and advanced treatments of heterogeneous and discontinuous geo-materials and underground structures. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

1. Advanced algorithms to quantify morphology characteristics of heterogeneous and discontinuous geo-materials;
2. Constitutive models of heterogeneous and discontinuous materials;
3. High-performance computation methods for heterogeneous and discontinuous materials;
4. Advanced treatments for surrounding rocks and underground structures during tunneling in heterogeneous geo-materials;
5. Settlement prediction and control during tunneling in heterogeneous geo-materials;
6. Three-dimensional mechanical behavior of urban underground structure under complex environment;
7. Safety evaluation for urban underground structure under complex environment;
8. Regulation, planning, environmental assessment, investment, management of underground projects in urban areas.

Dr. Jianjun Ma
Prof. Dr. Mingfeng Lei
Dr. Yu Liang
Dr. Yuexiang Lin
Guest Editors

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