Inner Damage-Identification and Residual Strength-Assessment of a 3D Printed Tunnel with Marble-Like Cementitious Materials Using Piezoelectric Transducers (2023-04)¶

Quantitative damage identification of surrounding rock is important to assess the current condition and residual strength of underground tunnels. In this work, an underground tunnel model with marble-like cementitious materials was first fabricated using the three-dimensional (3D) printing technique and then loaded to simulate its failure mode in the laboratory. Lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric (PZT) transducers were embedded in the surrounding rock around the tunnel in the process of 3D printing. A 3D monitoring network was formed to locate damage areas and evaluate damage extent during loading. Results show that as the load increased, main cracks firstly appeared above the tunnel roof and below the floor, and then they coalesced into the tunnel boundary. Finally, the tunnel model was broken into several parts. The resonant frequency and the peak of the conductance signature firstly shifted rightwards with loading due to the sealing of microcracks, and then shifted backwards after new cracks appeared. An overall increase in the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) calculated from conductance signatures of all the PZT transducers was observed as the load (damage) increased. Damage-dependent equivalent stiffness parameters (ESPs) were calculated from the real and imaginary signatures of each PZT at different damage states. Satisfactory agreement between equivalent and experimental ESP values was achieved. Also, the relationship between the change of the ESP and the residual strength was obtained. The method paves the way for damage identification and residual strength estimation of other 3D printed structures in civil engineering.