Thermoporoelastic Analysis of a Deep Circular Tunnel

Semi-analytical solutions are presented for the behavior of a cylindrical cavity excavated in a porous rock mass. Two homogeneous media constitute the rock mass: a ‘skin’ surrounding the cavity and the porous rock mass. The behavior of the rock mass is thermoporoelastic and contrasts of mechanical and hydraulical properties between the two media are taken into account to model approximately degradation and damage due to the opening of the cavity. General solutions are given for an isotropic saturated porous medium with only one space coordinate, the radius of the cavity. Results are presented, using realistic data, to evaluate temperature, pore pressure, effective stress distributions and radial displacement for two materials representative of a clay and a shale.